The Fabrication of Multilayer Ceramic-Metal Laminates
Open Access
- Author:
- Shaner, Craig William
- Area of Honors:
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- James Hansell Adair, Thesis Supervisor
James Hansell Adair, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. David John Green, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Zirconia
steel
tape
cast
colloid
laminate
multilayer
ceramic
metal
optical
oxide
oxidation
reduction
sinter - Abstract:
- As surgical techniques advance, surgical instruments must advance alongside them. Recent advances in minimally invasive surgeries require the use of an endoscope, which must contain precise, specialized surgical instruments fabricated at the mesoscale. These instruments are often made from stainless steel or yttria-stabilized zirconia, but these materials have inherent flaws. The aim of this thesis is to develop a steel-zirconia layered composite to optimize the mechanical properties of these surgical instruments. This composite was developed using a tape casting procedure. Non-aqueous steel and zirconia tape casting slurries were developed and cast as tapes. These tapes were laminated into a composite structure, binder was removed from the part through thermolysis, and the composite was sintered. Because the binder was removed from the composite in air, the steel layers were oxidized. This metal oxide was then partially reduced during sintering in forming gas. This oxidation and reduction led to delamination of the steel and zirconia layers. Another potential cause of delamination is stress at the steel-zirconia interface due to thermal expansion mismatch, strain on the tapes due to the tape casting process, or differing shrinkage rates during sintering of steel and zirconia. These, and many other, issues must be resolved before a mesoscale surgical instrument can be successfully fabricated from a multilayer steel-zirconia composite, but the work done in this thesis will provide a starting point for future work in the area.