Fabrication of functionally graded materials via inkjet color printing

A new method for fabricating functionally graded materials (FGMs) via inkjet color printing is reported in this paper. Al2O3 and ZrO2 aqueous suspensions were stabilized electrostatically and placed in different color reservoirs in inkjet cartridges. The volume and composition of the suspensions printed in droplets at a small area were controlled by the inkjet cyan-magenta-yellow-black color printing principle. The analysis of energy-dispersive spectrometry shows that with multi-layer printing, the composition profile of the printed FGM is consistent with the designed profile. The new method shows the potential for fabricating FGMs with arbitrarily designed three-dimensional composition profiles.