Debinding behaviors of silica green bodies photocured by hybridized interparticle crosslinks
YAMADA S. 1, TATAMI J. 1, IIJIMA M. 1
1 Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan
Interparticle photo-cross-linkable suspension is a new series of suspension which can be photocured by small amount of monomer and further processable through rapid debinding/sintering process without occurring structural collapse. Briefly, for processing silica glass components, silica particles were dispersed into a nonaqueous solvent with the aid of functionalized polyethyleneimine (PEI) where a small amount of multifunctional acrylate (MA) and photo-radical initiator are dissolved. The UV light irradiation to this system induces the radical polymerization of MA followed by Michael addition reaction between MA and functionalized PEI on silica particles, which results into photocuring. Recently, we found that by co-adding a reactive silane alkoxide with acryloyl groups (A-Si) as a monomer, the structural collapse of photocured bodies during debinding process were suppressed even the monomer content has increased to enable green machining to shape complex structures. However, the action mechanism of A-Si on the prevention of structural collapse during rapid dewaxing was not clear. Here, we systematically clarify the effect of A-Si addition on the microstructures and mechanical properties of photocured bodies during dewaxing process. Two series of photocured silica bodies were prepared from interparticle photo-cross-linkable silica suspensions containing MA or a mixture of MA and A-Si (1:1 in weight) as monomer. The content of monomers in the suspension were both fixed to be 10 wt% to the particles. While the photocured bodies with A-Si maintained their outer structure during rapid (20 K/min.) dewaxing, those without A-Si formed severe cracks at 500~600°C. From the FESEM observations of photocured bodies heat treated at various temperatures, it was further found that the interparticle crosslinks completely disappeared at 600°C for the system which only contained MA while siloxane-based crosslinks generated and remained for those contained A-Si. TMA analysis confirmed that the remaining siloxane-based crosslinks in A-Si containing system improved the mechanical properties of brown bodies at 500~600°C, which was the key factor to prevent the structural collapse during rapid debinding.