The use of biobased
materials in additive manufacturing is arising
as a promising approach to modernize the polymer industry reducing
its environmental impact. Herein, novel sustainable formulations are
developed for digital light processing (DLP) using five vegetable
oilssunflower, canola, soybean, olive, and sesame oilas
feedstock. These vegetable oils are successfully modified incorporating
photopolymerizable groups, i.e., acrylates, enabling printability.
The oil-based formulations consisting of a functionalized oil and
a photoinitiator are employed as inks for DLP without the need for
further additives. The rheology and curing behavior of all the inks
and printed materials are carefully investigated. The values obtained
for their critical curing energy (E
c)
range from 14.52 to 18.49 mJ cm–2, allowing for
fast printing. Interestingly, it is found that E
c not only correlates with the average number of acrylate groups
per molecule but also the viscosity plays a key role. Additionally,
the thermal and mechanical properties are studied and compared. In
summary, sunflower and canola oil derivatives offer a better cost-performance
ratio than the state-of-the-art soybean oil inks and can be employed
for 3D printing of complex geometries with high speed and resolution.
This work demonstrates the potential of using biobased and inexpensive
materials as high performance inks for DLP 3D printing and opens new
possibilities for the next generation of sustainable 3D printing.
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