3D Printing of Photocuring Elastomers with Excellent Mechanical Strength and Resilience

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing elastomers, as a combination of transformative technology and widely used materials, have received great demand in many fields. However, commercial photocuring elastomer inks for 3D printing usually exhibit poor mechanical strength, inferior resilience, and lower elongation at break. In this study, photocuring inks that can be employed for digital light processing 3D printing are developed with acryloyl-modified polyethylene glycol (Acryl@PEG). The resultant photocuring inks exhibit not only high tensile strength of 14.1 MPa and elongation of 245.0%, but also excellent resilience (recover to 90.85% after 30 min under the 200% strain). With the photocuring elastomer inks, a variety of architectures including hollow vases, eggs, finger rings, and porous lattices are built with excellent precision, which all could experience large shape deformations repeatedly without any damage, indicating the excellent elasticity, outstanding shape-recovery property, and mechanical stability. The present photocuring elastomer inks for 3D printing are therefore believed to be promising for soft robots, wearable devices, flexible electronics, and many other applications.

Keywords: 3D printing; elastomers; photocuring inks.