Effects of particle size and color on photocuring performance of Si3N4 ceramic slurry by stereolithography

Due to high absorbance of UV light and low solid loading, the stereolithography-based additive manufacturing of gray-colored and dense Si 3 N 4 ceramic is of significant difficulty and challenge. The effects of geometric properties of ceramic powders on the curing performance were investigated by studying the absorption difference of the Si 3 N 4 ceramic particles with different colors and particle sizes and ultraviolet light. The results show that the transmission of ultraviolet light and curing performance of the darker Si 3 N 4 ceramic slurry are much poor. Under the same particle size, the Si 3 N 4 ceramic slurry using lighter particles presents the smaller scattering coefficient. The scattering coefficient (∼202) of the gray powder with ∼0.8 μm average particle size is the smallest. Under the same color, the larger the particle size, the smaller the scattering coefficient. The smallest scattering coefficient of the white powder with ∼2.0 μm average particle size is ∼110.