3D printing of fibre-reinforced ceramic composites with hierarchical structure

ABSTRACT This paper reports the 3D printing of fibre-reinforced ceramic composite with hierarchical structures. Through printing precursor formulation, short SiC fibres have been successfully incorporated into silicate materials and gradient porous hierarchical structure has been achieved for the printed parts. The mechanical testing shows a 27% improvement in impact strength, 22% improvement in flexural modulus, and 7.5% in flexural strength compared with parts without fibre reinforcement. High-resolution tomography analysis using x-ray microscopy shows that the inner structure has a porosity of 27%, while the outer layer shows a dense structure with little pores formation. This 3D printed ceramic composite with fibre-reinforcement shows high similarity to the gradient porous structures of human bone and tooth. The results indicate that 3D printing of nano/microfibre reinforced ceramic composite with hierarchical structure is a promising method to enhance the fracture toughness of ceramics and allow accurate patient-specific customisation for their implants.