Development of nanospinel ceramics formed by the robocast technique

• Grant number: 24/13544-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Sebastião Ribeiro
• Grantee: Luísa Pedrosa de Andrade
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There are several ways to form ceramics pieces, one of which is well known and used in laboratories and industry is extrusion. Extrusion consists to force a ceramic paste, with suitable rheological properties, through a matrix with the desired cross-sectional geometry. Until very recently, extrusion was only used to manufacture objects with a constant section. With the advent of Additive Manufacturing, 3D printing extrusion (Robocast) of ceramics has gained prominence in the production of ceramics with complex shapes and good quality. By 3D extrusion, simple ceramic parts can be produced, for simple applications, but also complex ones for more noble applications, which can be from simple rectangular section bars to parts for complex applications, such as medical or mechanical, for example, bone implants or turbines. The objective of this project is to develop porous nanospinel ceramics extruded via 3D printer and sintered in an electric furnace. The nanospinel to be used was produced by a doctoral student from the ceramics group at the Department of Materials Engineering at the Lorena School of Engineering. Two important factors to be taken into account are: nanomaterials are difficult to sinter at high density, but rather at low density and high porosity; Another is that by 3D printing it is possible to produce resistant scaffolds, but also with a high specific surface. This makes nanospinels and 3D printing promising subjects for the production of porous ceramics. To develop this project, the student will prepare pastes with appropriate rheological properties, using nanospinel and additives, develop the design and extrude, via robocast, sintering and characterize the produced pieces.