3D printing of thermosets with diverse rheological and functional applicabilities

Yuxuan Sun; Liu Wang; Yangyang Ni; Huajian Zhang; Xiang Cui; Jiahao Li; Yinbo Zhu; Ji Liu; Shiwu Zhang; Yong Chen; Mujun Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-35929-y

3D printing of thermosets with diverse rheological and functional applicabilities

Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 16;14(1):245. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-35929-y.

Authors

Yuxuan Sun¹, Liu Wang², Yangyang Ni¹, Huajian Zhang¹, Xiang Cui³, Jiahao Li⁴, Yinbo Zhu⁴, Ji Liu⁵, Shiwu Zhang¹, Yong Chen⁶, Mujun Li⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China. wangliu05@ustc.edu.cn.
³ School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁵ Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, 518055, Shenzhen, China.
⁶ Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. yongchen@usc.edu.
⁷ Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China. lmn@ustc.edu.cn.

Abstract

Thermosets such as silicone are ubiquitous. However, existing manufacturing of thermosets involves either a prolonged manufacturing cycle (e.g., reaction injection molding), low geometric complexity (e.g., casting), or limited processable materials (e.g., frontal polymerization). Here, we report an in situ dual heating (ISDH) strategy for the rapid 3D printing of thermosets with complex structures and diverse rheological properties by incorporating direct ink writing (DIW) technique and a heating-accelerated in situ gelation mechanism. Enabled by an integrated Joule heater at the printhead, extruded thermosetting inks can quickly cure in situ, allowing for DIW of various thermosets with viscosities spanning five orders of magnitude, printed height over 100 mm, and high resolution of 50 μm. We further demonstrate DIW of a set of heterogenous thermosets using multiple functional materials and present a hybrid printing of a multilayer soft electronic circuit. Our ISDH strategy paves the way for fast manufacturing of thermosets for various emerging fields.

Grants and funding

51475442/National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)