Direct digital light processing of polymer-derived SiOC ceramics from a low-cost cyclic polysiloxane precursor

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Abstract

Polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) have attracted increasing interest for fabricating complex ceramic architectures due to their tunable composition, low processing temperatures, and compatibility with additive manufacturing techniques. However, achieving printable preceramic resins with high ceramic yield, controlled shrinkage, and good mechanical integrity remains a major challenge for vat photopolymerization-based fabrication of SiOC ceramics. In this work, a commercially available cyclic polysiloxane precursor, 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-1,3,5,7-tetravinylcyclotetrasiloxane (TTCS), was utilized for the first time as a direct precursor for digital light processing (DLP)-fabricated SiOC ceramics through mixing with commercially available acrylate monomers. The effects of precursor-to-monomer ratio, co-monomer chemistry, and printing parameters on resin printability, polymer-to-ceramic transformation, microstructure evolution, shrinkage, porosity, and mechanical performance were systematically investigated. Complex gyroid architectures were successfully fabricated and converted into amorphous SiOC ceramics following pyrolysis at 1000 °C. The resulting ceramics exhibited tunable shrinkage, density, porosity, and mechanical properties depending on resin composition. A two-component resin system containing TTCS and 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA) at a 2:1 precursor-to-monomer ratio produced the highest mechanical performance, achieving a ceramic yield of 30.5%, hardness of 8.20 ± 2.21 GPa, modulus of 71.1 ± 16.1 GPa, and average linear shrinkage of ∼46% with relatively low porosity. The results demonstrate that direct resin formulation using low-cost TTCS provides a simple and tunable route for fabricating SiOC ceramics with tailored microstructures and mechanical properties through DLP-based additive manufacturing.

Publication Title

Ceramics International

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