Enhanced mechanical and sintering properties of MgO-TiO2 ceramic composite via digital light processing

In this work, MgO was applied to modify the titania ceramic slurry, which could realize the high-quality DLP printing of titania ceramic by promoting the grain growth during sintering. Combining the phase and element analysis, it was revealed that the reduced stress concentration and improved mechanical property were attributed to the formation of MgTi2O5 in solid-state reaction between MgO and TiO2. When MgO content increased beyond 10 wt.%, the microstructure pinning effects showed a negative impact on ceramic grain growth. Among all the samples, 5%MgO/TiO2 has exhibited the best bending strength of 71.9 MPa and the densification of 85%, while its sintering temperature reduced by 200 °C. Meanwhile, the compressive property of representing porous TiO2 samples reached 18.2 MPa, which was similar to those of porous ceramics produced by conventional manufacturing routes. Overall, MgO-TiO2 composite ceramic prepared in this study have potential application in field of monolithic catalysts and tissue engineering scaffold.