Photocurable ceramic slurry using solid camphor as novel diluent for conventional digital light processing (DLP) process

This study presents the utility of solid camphor as a novel type of diluent for the preparation of photocurable ceramic slurries with sufficiently low viscosity at high solid loading (48 vol%), which can be applicable for the conventional digital light processing (DLP) process. The camphor addition remarkably decreased the viscosity of calcium phosphate (CaP) ceramic slurries without affecting their photopolymerization behavior. This approach could effectively mitigate the clogging of pores with residual slurries, and thus the porous structure of porous CaP scaffolds with 3D channels could be tightly controlled. Furthermore, the high densification of CaP frameworks after sintering at 1250 °C for 3 h could be achieved owing to the use of the high solid loading in the CaP slurry. The porous CaP scaffolds produced displayed high compressive strength (˜ 23.8 MPa) and modulus (˜ 276 MPa) at a high porosity of ˜ 50.6 vol%.