Stereolithography is a proven additive manufacturing technique that is used for printing ceramic part in 3 dimensions. However, it requires the use of organic compounds for the formulation of feedstocks that need to be removed before sintering in order to obtain dense ceramic parts. When the parts are small or porous (scaffold for instance) this debinding process is generally carried out in a thermal way, at a slow heating rate, to allow time for the gases resulting from the decomposition of the organic material to escape. However, despite relatively long debinding times, obtaining big defect-free parts remains a challenge. To solve this problem, pre-debinding cycles or specific treatments could be done before the thermal cycle.
Previous work suggested that using supercritical extraction with CO₂ (SC) as a pre-debinding step could be interesting compared to a conventional water debinding on SLA-printed parts. The influence of both soaking time and specimen size have been evaluated by measuring the mass loss and performing TGA analysis. Considering soaking time and extraction time (limited at 6 hours due to our equipment) no preferential pre-debinding treatment has been clearly identified expected on surface defects. A combined cycle (SC + water debinding) has been studied and evaluated for improving processing time, part integrity and mechanical properties (3-pts bending).  
The Belgian Ceramic Research Centre (CRIBC) and Tampere University (TAU) have started a collaboration project on that topic. The project will focus on the improvement of post processing and characteristics of 3D printed ceramic oxide samples. The possibility to decrease debinding time and to enhance the mechanical strength of the sintered parts will be assessed by modifying the post-printing treatments (cleaning and debinding) Two levers have been selected to reach the goals: a proper selection of the good monomers for paste preparation and an improved chemical debinding process involving supercritical extraction with CO₂.