Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of Functional Ceramics and Glasses

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is nowadays a widely spread manufacturing technique, which is due to its ability to fabricate complex, customized structures with high precision. Among the 3D printing methods direct ink writing (DIW) has emerged as a highly versatile and efficient approach for the manufacturing of ceramics. In this dissertation DIW is utilized to fabricate ceramic materials as monolithic solids and 3D network structures. The printed materials are employed in various applications, including sensing, biomedicine and electrical engineering. Furthermore a novel printing method for silica glass is introduced, which combines DIW with a laser melting approach. This thesis employs zinc oxide, zirconia and silica glass in various applications. Tetrapodal ZnO (t-ZnO) is used to develop flexible UV sensors and selective gas sensors for hydrogen safety applications. Furthermore, the antibacterial properties of ZnO are utilized to print functional wound dressings made from alginate hydrogel and t-ZnO. DIW is also used to fabricate monolithic ceramics from yttrium stabilized zirconia as a material for dental prosthetics. In this thesis the effects of the ink design on the mechanical properties of the zirconia are investigated. Aside from its potential for biomedical application the 3D printed zirconia exhibits great potential for an application as dielectric resonator, which is explored by an investigation of its dielectric properties. A key advancement presented in this work is the development of the laser assisted melt printing (LAMP) approach, which enables the direct printing of silica glass without the need for postprocessing in form sintering. Overall, this dissertation highlights the potential of DIW and its versatile printing approach, advancing additive manufacturing for personalized, high-performance applications across multiple fields.