The restoration of ancient ceramics has attracted widespread attention as it can reveal the overall appearance of ancient ceramics as well as the original information and artistic charm of cultural relics. However, traditional manual restoration is constrained due to its time-consuming nature and susceptibility to damaging ancient ceramics. Herein, a three-dimensional (3D) printing technique was employed to accurately restore Chinese Yuan Dynasty Longquan celadon using hollow Al2O3 microsphere-modified 3D printing paste. The results show that the hollow Al2O3 microsphere content plays a vital role in the printability, physical properties, and firing performance of the modified 3D printing paste. The printed green bodies show no noticeable spacing or voids under moderate rheological conditions. The as-prepared ceramic body modified with 6 wt.% hollow Al2O3 microspheres and fired at 1280 °C exhibits optimal bending strength of 56.66 MPa and a relatively low density of 2.16 g∙cm−3, as well as a relatively uniform longitudinal elastic modulus and hardness along the interlayer. This 3D printing technique based on hollow Al2O3 microsphere-modified paste presents a promising pathway for achieving non-contact and damage-free restoration of cultural relics.
Ti-Ta laminated composites suffer from the inadequate wear resistance and antibacterial properties. To promote their application, surface mechanical grinding treatment (SMGT) was employed to modify their surface physicochemical properties. This work systematically investigated the microstructure, phase composition, roughness, friction and wear behaviors and anti-bacterial adhesion effect of Ti-Ta SMGT samples. The results showed that the nanocrystallization of the Ti-Ta laminated composites after SMGT was achieved, and the strength and elastic modulus met the requirements of the third-generation medical titanium alloy. The changes of the surface properties such as roughness, hardness, chemical state and surface energy by SMGT improved their tribological properties in simulated body fluids and anti-bacterial adhesion effect for staphylococcus aureus, indicating the promising prospect of Ti-Ta SMGT samples for the biomedical application.
The modeling of ceramics with complex geometric structures currently depends on the handcrafted mode, with long cycles, high costs, and low efficiency; additive manufacturing (AM) technology can solve this problem well. Herein, the porcelain clay paste was successfully prepared for the direct ink writing (DIW) 3D printing process of ceramics with complex geometric structures, and the effects of sodium citrate (SC) content on the rheological properties and DIW 3D printability of the porcelain clay paste were investigated in detail. The SC has a vital role in the rheological behavior of porcelain clay paste. Adding SC increases the absolute zeta potential and decreases the viscosity of the paste, while a high SC content will lead to a low storage modulus of the paste. The porcelain clay paste with an SC content of 0.05% and a paste solid content of 75% possesses suitable rheological properties and a storage modulus for DIW 3D printing. The as-prepared porcelain clay paste has high DIW 3D printability at a pressure of 0.5 MPa, and a 3D-printed green body with a well-densified structure can be achieved. After being sintered, the 3D-printed ceramic exhibits high densification and mechanical properties. A green body with complex geometric structures is quickly and precisely modeled by the DIW 3D printing process with the resultant porcelain clay paste as the raw material. This work provides a practical approach to rapidly fabricating ceramics with complex geometrical structures.