Prediction of ceramic stereolithography resin sensitivity from theory and measurement of diffusive photon transport

A general, quantitative relationship between the photon-transport mean free path l* and resin sensitivity DP in multiple-scattering alumina/monomer suspensions formulated for ceramic stereolithography is presented and experimentally demonstrated. A Mie-theory-based computational method with structure factor contributions to determine l* was developed. Planar-source diffuse transmittance experiments were performed on monodisperse and bimodal polystyrene/water and alumina/monomer systems to validate this computational tool. The experimental data support the application of this l* calculation method to concentrated suspensions composed of nonaggregating particles of moderately aspherical shape and log-normal size distribution. The values of DP are shown to be approximately five times that of l* in the tested ceramic stereolithography suspensions. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.1980531