Interfacial Control of Multi-material 3D Printed Components

Project Description

Additive manufacturing of soft materials has progressed significantly over the past decade yet the interfacial control of multi-material 3D printed structures remains an open challenge. Single-vat digital light processing (DLP) is a viable route for creating well-defined and high-resolution interfaces for materials spanning a wide range of elastic moduli (kPa’s to MPa’s) relevant for biocompatible systems (Figure 1). Multi-material DLP-based 3D printing requires orthogonal photopolymerization mechanisms, commonly a combination of free radical and ring-opening cationic polymerizations. Based on the wavelength of light, selective photopolymerization can be achieved to produce prints with distinct regions in mechanical properties. Previous successful reports have made prints with various acrylate/epoxy systems (1-3). Unfortunately, cationic photoinitiators rather fragment into radical producing species, or rely on dyes that generate strong acids through electron transfer, ultimately making these resin systems non-orthogonal in terms of photochemistry (1-3). By designing a PEG-acrylate/epoxy resin with complete orthogonal chemistries, the ability to create 3D printed components with well-defined regions across stiff-soft will open the design space in terms of monomer selection and interfacial properties.

Instruments