Development of TiO₂/ZrO₂ Multi-Material Obtained from Ceramic Pastes for Material Extrusion

The application of additive manufacturing method such as material extrusion (MEX) allows the successful fabrication of ceramic products, including multi-ceramic products. Promising materials in this research area are TiO₂ and ZrO₂ ceramics, which can be used in electrical and electronic engineering. The aim of this work is to investigate the possibility of fabricating TiO₂/ZrO₂ multi-materials from ceramic pastes that can be used in the MEX. In this work, defects, chemical and phase composition, and microhardness were analyzed in multi-ceramic samples after sintering. Multi-ceramic TiO₂/ZrO₂ samples after the sintering process without interlayer could not be fabricated due to a too large difference in shrinkage between TiO₂ and ZrO₂. The samples with one and three interlayers also have defects, but they are less significant and can be fabricated. The average hardness for the TiO₂ zone was 636.7 HV and for the ZrO₂ zone was 1101 HV. In the TiO₂ zone, only TiO₂ phase in rutile is observed, while in the interlayer zones, in addition to rutile, ZrO₂ and ZrTiO₄ are also present, as is a small amount of Y₂O₃. In the zone ZrO₂, only the ZrO₂ phase is observed. The chemical analysis revealed that the interlayers comprise sintered ZrO₂ granules enveloped by TiO₂, ZrO₂, and ZrTiO₄.