3D printen van poreuze keramische materialen

Porous ceramics are essential for applications in catalysis, biomedical implants, filtration, and thermal management. However, traditional manufacturing techniques often limit the design freedom and fine control over pore structures needed for these applications. In this research, innovative 3D printing methods, specifically binder jetting and material jetting, were explored to overcome these limitations by fabricating porous ceramic structures with controlled geometry and multi-scale porosity. A custom binder jetting printer was designed and built, enabling voxel-level control of ink deposition and adaptive layer thickness. Various ceramic and polymeric feedstocks were evaluated using this custom 3D printer, and common failure modes were identified and mitigated. Porous ceramic foams were fabricated by infiltrating 3D-printed sacrificial templates, allowing geometrically complex and highly porous structures. Material jetting was employed to create digitally designed ceramics with high-resolution, tunable porosity, demonstrating excellent control over internal architecture. The functional relevance of these structures was assessed through their integration into flow reactor systems, where their use as structured catalysts was evaluated. This work demonstrated that additive manufacturing can enable the scalable and customizable production of porous ceramics with application-specific properties, offering new possibilities ranging from energy to healthcare.