Exploring Rheology Additives for Robocasting 3D Alumina-Structured Supports

Abstract

Regulations regarding industrial gas emissions, such as CO2, became stringent over the years. Additive manufacturing is a critical enabling technology that could develop innovative solutions for this application. This application has strict requirements on pressure drop, high temperature, pore structures, and catalytic chemical performance. Structured “intricate” ceramic materials are ideal for meeting these application requirements. This research takes advantage of the wealth of literature available for alumina ceramic extrusion but explores it for additive manufacturing via “Robocasting.” This is a promising method to make complex and novel 3D-printed geometries that meet chemical and physical requirements for gas emission control applications. Paste rheology is one of the most critical manufacturing parameters that affect the quality of the 3D printed geometry. Three rheology modifiers for alumina paste are investigated and evaluated on benchmarking 3D printed geometries made via robocasting. Then, they are assessed on their physical properties only. Chemical evaluation is outside the scope of this research and will be the natural follow-up research built on the generated knowledge reached from this research. Through this research, it was made possible robocasting an alumina structure support and establishing the workflow of going from an alumina boehmite powder to a 3D-printed structure. The main achievement of this research was to establish a workflow and a methodology that can be followed to create a printable ceramic paste suitable for making 3D-printed catalysts.