Metal-doped polymer-derived SiOC composites with inorganic metal salt as the metal source by digital light processing 3D printing

Metal-doped polymer derived ceramics (PDCs) exhibits multifunctional properties due to the introduction of special metal element; however as one of the cheapest metal element carriers, metal inorganic salts have rarely been reported for the fabrication of metal-doped PDCs. In this article, a novel hydrophilic photosensitive gamma-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy modified polyhydroxymethylsiloxane preceramic polymer was firstly synthesised and three different metal-doped SiOC ceramic lattices with a strut thickness of 200 mu m were successfully fabricated using inorganic metal salts as the metal source by digital light processing. The photosensitive coefficient, initial photocuring coefficient and the corresponding working curves were employed to evaluate the photocurable ability of preceramic polymers with different recipes. Results showed that both the metal-containing polymer lattices and the metal-doped SiOC ceramic lattices exhibited high-resolution microstructure and homogeneous metal element distribution, indicating that the inorganic metal salt is an effective metal source for the fabrication of metal-doped PDCs.