Abstract
As an energy-efficient additive manufacturing process, vat photopolymerization 3D-printing has become a convenient technology to fabricate functional devices with high resolution and freedom in design. However, due to their permanently crosslinked network structure, photopolymers are not easily reprocessed or repaired. To improve the environmental footprint of 3D-printed objects, herein, we combine the dynamic nature of hydroxyl ester links, undergoing a catalyzed transesterification at elevated temperature, with an acrylate monomer derived from renewable resources. As a sustainable building block, we synthesized an acrylated linseed oil and mixed it with selected thiol crosslinkers. By careful selection of the transesterification catalyst, we obtained dynamic thiol-acrylate resins with a high cure rate and decent storage stability, which enabled the digital light processing (DLP) 3D-printing of objects with a structure size of 550 µm. Owing to their dynamic covalent bonds, the thiol-acrylate networks were able to relax 63% of their initial stress within 22 min at 180 °C and showed enhanced toughness after thermal annealing. We exploited the thermo-activated reflow of the dynamic networks to heal and re-shape the 3D-printed objects. The dynamic thiol-acrylate photopolymers also demonstrated promising healing, shape memory, and re-shaping properties, thus offering great potential for various industrial fields such as soft robotics and electronics.
Originalsprache | Englisch |
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Aufsatznummer | 5377 |
Seitenumfang | 14 |
Fachzeitschrift | Polymers |
Jahrgang | 14.2022 |
Ausgabenummer | 24 |
DOIs | |
Publikationsstatus | Veröffentlicht - 8 Dez. 2022 |
Bibliographische Notiz
Funding Information:Part of the research work was performed with the “SMART” project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860108. Part of the research work was performed also within the COMET-Module “Chemitecture” (project-no.: 21647048) at the Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH (PCCL, Austria) within the framework of the COMET-program of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs with contributions by the Institute of Chemistry of Polymeric Materials (Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria). The PCCL is funded by the Austrian Government and the State Governments of Styria, Upper and Lower Austria.
Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), grant number 21647048. Additional funding was provided by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 860108.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.