The field of 3D printing is continuing its rapid development in both academic and industrial research environments. The development of 3D printing technologies has opened new implementations in rapid prototyping, tooling, dentistry, microfluidics, biomedical devices, tissue engineering, drug delivery, etc. Among different 3D printing techniques, photopolymerization-based process (such as stereolithography and digital light processing) offers flexibility over the final properties of the 3D printed materials (such as optical, chemical, and mechanical properties) using versatile polymer chemistry. The strategy behind the 3D photopolymerization is based on using monomers/oligomers in liquid state (in the presence of photoinitiators) that can be photopolymerized (via radical or cationic mechanism) upon exposure to light source of different wavelengths (depending on the photoinitiator system). An overview of recent evolutions in the field of photopolymerization-based 3D printing and highlights of novel 3D print...

Photopolymerization in 3D Printing

Polymers for additive manufacturing and 4D-printing: Materials, methodologies, and biomedical applications

The field of 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is developing rapidly in both academic and industrial research environments. New materials and printing technologies, which enable rapid and multimaterial printing, have given rise to new applications and utilizations. However, the main bottleneck for achieving many more applications is the lack of materials with new physical properties. Here, some of the recent reports on novel materials in this field, such as ceramics, glass, shape-memory polymers, and electronics, are reviewed. Although new materials have been reported for all three main printing approaches-fused deposition modeling, binder jetting or laser sintering/melting, and photopolymerization-based approaches, apparently, most of the novel physicochemical properties are associated with materials printed by photopolymerization approaches. Furthermore, the high resolution that can be achieved using this type of 3D printing, together with the new properties, has resulted in new implementations such as microfluidic, biomedical devices, and soft robotics. Therefore, the focus here is on photopolymerization-based additive manufacturing including the recent development of new methods, novel monomers, and photoinitiators, which result in previously inaccessible applications such as complex ceramic structures, embedded electronics, and responsive 3D objects.

Novel Materials for 3D Printing by Photopolymerization

Recent progress on polymer materials for additive manufacturing

Throughout the world there have been alarming concerns over the use of nonrenewable resources during manufacturing of goods and associated environmental legislations. Therefore, the use of natural materials and fabrication of composites therefrom, particularly, development of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites is gaining significant attention. Although natural fiber reinforced composites (NFRCs) show strong application prospects, various materials and processing related challenges needs to be addressed to achieve long-term stability and performance. In this review, we attempted to provide an overview of different types of natural fibers, their characteristics and properties enabling them to be used as reinforcing agents in different polymers. Then the unique requirement of fiber surface modification to achieve enhanced fiber-matrix bonding is discussed. The article also discusses conventional processing routes and critical issues associated with NFRCs processing. The use of different additive manufacturing (AM) technologies in processing polymer composites is also discussed. At the end, we have critically analyzed the challenges and opportunities associated with AM of NFRCs.

Additive manufacturing of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites: Processing and prospects

3D printing has gained significant research interest recently for directly manufacturing 3D components and structures for use in a variety of applications. In this paper, a digital light processing (DLP®) based 3D printing technique was explored to manufacture electrically conductive objects of polymer nanocomposites. Here, the ink was made of a mixture of photocurable resin with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The concentrations of MWCNT as well as the printing parameters were investigated to yield optimal conductivity and printing quality. We found that 0.3 wt% loading of MWCNT in the resin matrix can provide the maximum electrical conductivity of 0.027S/m under the resin viscosity limit that allows high printing quality. With electric conductivity, the printed MWCNT nanocomposites can be used as smart materials and structures with strain sensitivity and shape memory effect. We demonstrate that the printed conductive complex structures as hollow capacitive sensor, electrically activated shape memory composites, stretchable circuits, showing the versatility of DLP® 3D printing for conductive complex structures. In addition, mechanical tests showed that the addition of MWCNT could slightly increase the modulus and ultimate tensile stress while decreasing slightly the ultimate stretch, indicating that the new functionality is not obtained at the price of sacrificing mechanical properties.

Feng Duan

Papers

Digital light processing 3D printing of conductive complex structures