Abstract
Piezoelectric composites are considered excellent core materials for fabricating various ultrasonic devices. For the traditional fabrication process, piezoelectric composite structures are mainly prepared by mold forming, mixing, and dicing-filing techniques. However, these techniques are limited on fabricating shapes with complex structures. With the rapid development of additive manufacturing (AM), many research fields have applied AM technology to produce functional materials with various geometric shapes. In this study, the Mask-Image-Projection-based Stereolithography (MIP-SL) process, one of the AM (3D-printing) methods, was used to build BaTiO3-based piezoelectric composite ceramics with honeycomb structure design. A sintered sample with denser body and higher density was achieved (i.e., density obtained 5.96 g/cm3), and the 3D-printed ceramic displayed the expected piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties using the complex structure (i.e., piezoelectric constant achieved 60 pC/N). After being integrated into an ultrasonic device, the 3D-printed component also presents promising material performance and output power properties for ultrasound sensing (i.e., output voltage reached 180 mVpp). Our study demonstrated the effectiveness of AM technology in fabricating piezoelectric composites with complex structures that cannot be fabricated by dicing-filling. The approach may bring more possibilities to the fabrication of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS)-based ultrasonic devices via 3D-printing methods in the future.
Highlights
Researchers from various fields have applied rapidly developed additive manufacturing (3D-printing) technology to their studies, for example, synthesis of biomimetic materials with complex shapes such as nacre and lobster claw, fabrication of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices or piezoelectric medical devices, combining 3D-printing techniques with smart materials for application of 4D-printing, etc. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
The sample was placed in deionized water, and the holes of the honeycomb structure were filled with insulating epoxy
Charge dipoles were produced in the ceramic structure of the piezoelectric composite
Summary
Researchers from various fields have applied rapidly developed additive manufacturing (3D-printing) technology to their studies, for example, synthesis of biomimetic materials with complex shapes such as nacre and lobster claw, fabrication of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices or piezoelectric medical devices, combining 3D-printing techniques with smart materials for application of 4D-printing, etc. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. 3D-printing methods could be divided into chemical and physical types based on the material forming process. Kim et al demonstrated that piezoelectric materials combined with photocurable resin could be cured by visible or invisible lights, and the piezoelectric coefficient was improved in the printed materials [16,17]. Another type of 3D printing process mainly depends on physical processes such as sintering the material directly using high temperatures provided by devices such as a high-energy laser [18]. Selecting an appropriate 3D-printing method based on the desired functional material and geometric shape is vital for conducting the related research
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