A novel Mullite Anti-Gyroid/SiC Gyroid ceramic metastructure based on digital light processing 3D printing with enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption and mechanical properties

Electromagnetic wave (EMW)-absorbing materials have attracted much attention recently due to the growing threat that electromagnetic pollution poses to human health, the normal operation of electronic equipment, and the transfer of confidential information. SiC-based absorbing materials are potential candidates for EMW absorption due to their tunable permittivity, high temperature resistance, and superior chemical stability.

The EMW properties of materials and macro-structures are two important influences on EMW devices. Recently, a team of material scientists led by Yong Yang and Zhengren Huang from Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences first reported the design, preparation and their EMW absorption and mechanical properties of a novel mullite anti-gyroid/SiC gyroid metastructure. Porous SiC composites with gyroid structures are fabricated through DLP 3D printing and sintering. Subsequently, the mullite anti-gyroid/SiC gyroid composites with an anti-gyroid/gyroid metastructure are obtained by the PIP method, demonstrating a significant increase in the mechanical properties compared to those of porous mullite/SiC composites. The dielectric properties of the samples are realized by the gyroid structure design, and the mullite phase content changes with structural units, which improves the dielectric properties and impedance matching characteristics of the materials.

The team published their work in Journal of Advanced Ceramics on August 30, 2024.

“In this report, we designed and prepared mullite anti-gyroid/SiC gyroid metastructure composites by DLP 3D printing combined with the PIP method. Compared with those of the porous mullite/SiC composites, the flexural strength and EMW absorption properties of the composites improved simultaneously. The EMW absorption properties of structural composites can be tailored by adjusting the gyroid structural parameters. The PIP process effectively enhanced both the EMW absorption properties and the mechanical characteristics of the composites. Mullite anti-gyroid/SiC gyroid metastructural composites had an effective absorption bandwidth of 3.2 GHz and a minimum reflection loss of −54 dB in the X band. The flexural and compressive strengths were improved by 377%–586% and 459%–1358%, respectively, compared with those of the porous mullite/SiC composites. This work demonstrated that 3D printing technology can be used to successfully prepare specially designed complex EMW-absorbing metastructures and devices with tunable EMW absorption properties, which has great potential for application in the field of preparing high-performance EMW absorption metamaterials and devices, especially in the aerospacefield, such as fighter intakes, fuselage edges, and tips.” said Yong Yang, professor at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), a senior expert whose research interests focus on the field of 3D printing ceramics material.

Other contributors include Chaoyang Wang, Xiao Chen, Zhicheng Wang, Jialin Bai, Jie Tang, Yulong She, Zhengren Huang from Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No.2021YFB3701500) and the Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (No. 22XD1404000).

About Author

Yong Yang is the Professor in Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received B.Eng. and M. Eng., Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanxi University of Science and Technology, China. He also received Dr. Eng., Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He worked as JSPS postdoctoral research fellow and project Associate Professor in Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan. At present, he was officially appointed as Professor in Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His main interested research areas of are focused on the additive manufacturing and surface modification of ceramics, optical properties of nanomaterials and optical film. He was the author of more than 160 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals with citations ca 6000 times with H-index of 42.

About Journal of Advanced Ceramics

Journal of Advanced Ceramics (JAC) is an international academic journal that presents the state-of-the-art results of theoretical and experimental studies on the processing, structure, and properties of advanced ceramics and ceramic-based composites. JAC is Fully Open Access, monthly published by Tsinghua University Press, and exclusively available via SciOpen. JAC’s 2023 IF is 18.6, ranking in Top 1 (1/31, Q1) among all journals in “Materials Science, Ceramics” category, and its 2023 CiteScore is 21.0 (top 5%) in Scopus database. ResearchGate homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Journal-of-Advanced-Ceramics-2227-8508

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