A new three-dimensional (3D) printing gel is developed to construct hierarchically porous ceramics with adjustable millimeter-, micrometer-, and nanometer-scale size for application in thermal management. Not only does the gel based on supramolecular micelles exhibit excellent DIW 3D printability but also the supramolecular micelles act as templates that can precisely control the structure of micrometer-scale pores. The effect of millimeter- and μmicrometer-scale size on properties of porous ceramics is investigated in detail. The 3D-printed ceramic foam with millimeter-scale pores and smaller micrometer-scale pores shows better thermal insulation and lower compressive strength. For the thermal insulation, the local temperature of a chip exposed to contact heat is only 34.2 °C in the presence of a printed foam cap with a pore size of 41.5 μm, while the local temperature is 54.8 °C in the absence of the printed foam cap. The study provides a new method to construct hierarchically porous alumina ceramics with precisely tunable size, avoiding the issues of subtractive manufacturing and opening up new applications in portable devices or consumer electronics.
Keywords: 3D printing; DIW; hierarchically porous alumina; supramolecular; thermal management.