Nanowire-toughened high-performance SiC ceramics via digital light processing 3D printing and one-step pyrolysis

The high UV absorption of SiC and its large refractive index difference with photosensitive resin hinder fabrication via photopolymerization additive manufacturing. In this study, SiC powders were oxidized to form a SiC@SiO 2 core-shell structure, and two types of photoinitiators were combined to enhance the curing behavior of SiC slurries. Moreover, introducing polysiloxane into the resin further improved the curing ability and solid content. For fine SiC powders, slurries with up to 70 wt% solid content were successfully fabricated, achieving a curing thickness of 63 μm at 8 s exposure. Printed green bodies were pyrolyzed at 1100 °C, and SiC nanowires were in-situ formed. The resulting SiC@SiO 2 /SiOC ceramics exhibited a flexural strength of 157.8 MPa and an open porosity of 5.1%, among the highest reported values. The proposed methodology paves the way for the cost-effective production of high-performance SiC-based and other advanced non-oxide high-temperature ceramic components with high light absorption.