2018 Arthur L. Friedberg Ceramic Engineering Tutorial and Lecture abstract

Digital Assembly of Colloidal Suspensions, Gels and Foams

Jennifer A. Lewis, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, USA

We have developed digital assembly routes for printing dense and porous 3-D ceramic architectures. To facilitate their rapid design and assembly, we have engineered the composition and rheological behavior of concentrated colloidal suspensions, gels and foams to create printable inks. Several examples from our research will be highlighted. First, we will show how concentrated colloidal fluids can be assembled into individual voxels of controlled shape, size and composition via microfluidic techniques. Next, we will discuss the fabrication of 3-D ceramic architectures produced by directly writing inks composed of either concentrated colloidal gels or foams. Finally, we will highlight emerging opportunities for digital assembly of complex 3-D architectures.