Direct ink writing of cellulose-plasticized aqueous ceramic slurry for YAG transparent ceramics

Aqueous transparent ceramic YAG slurry with high solids loading up to 52 vol.% is proposed in this work for 3D direct ink writing. Celluloses are readily adjusted in the slurry design to enhance the plasticity, through which both printability of ceramic slurries and the optical quality of transparent ceramics are considerably improved. We demonstrate that the in-line transmittance at 1064 nm for a 1.2-mm-thick YAG ceramic can approach about 81.0%. This research provides a facile 3D printing routine for manufacturing transparent ceramic from water-based slurry. Graphical abstract