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DESIGN, ASSEMBLY AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPOSITE ...

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4.1. Introduction<br />

CHAPTER 4 AQUEOUS NICKEL INK<br />

Colloidal inks used in solid freeform fabrication have limited material selections<br />

with respect to metals due to two major reasons: 1) many metals oxidize readily on<br />

exposure to air and may be pyrophoric if finely divided, and 2) the size of particles that<br />

are often used in processes such as powder metallurgy, laser engineered net shaping<br />

(LENS), Selective Laser Sintering, and electron beam melting (EBM) are relatively large<br />

and pose a significant challenge to use in an extrusion system for colloidal inks.<br />

Nonetheless, the ability to use metals in a solid freeform fabrication process is highly<br />

attractive because of mechanical and electrical properties. Additionally, the use of metal<br />

and ceramic inks in combination suggests ceramic-metal composite devices and metal-<br />

ceramic joints with graded composition. Examples of the use of metal inks includes<br />

various metal particle filled aqueous and organic inks used in micropen, 123, 124 fused<br />

deposition modeling, 125, 126 and other similar direct-write processes. 127-130<br />

Robocasting has used aqueous colloidal ceramic inks, such as alumina for<br />

photonic band gap, 30 calcium phosphates for biomedical, 33 and PZT 6 and barium<br />

titanate 105 for ferroelectric purposes. A tungsten based ink has been used in Robocasting<br />

for functional graded materials 131 and biocompatible scaffolds. 132 However, no other<br />

112

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