Current advances and future perspectives of additive manufacturing for functional polymeric materials and devices

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has received extensive attention due to its unique multidimensional functionality and customizability and has been recognized as one of the most revolutionary manufacturing technologies. Functional 3D printed products represent an important orientation for next-generation manufacturing and attract a great spotlight for the application in sensors, actuators, robots, electronics, and medical devices. However, the lack of functions of printing polymeric materials dramatically limits the development of functional 3D printing. Different from traditional processing, the physical properties, such as geometry and rheological behavior, of the polymeric materials must match the printing process, making the selection of printable materials limited. More importantly, challenges in large-scale production of such materials further stifle the development of functional 3D printing industry. In this review, we aim to outline recent advances in polymeric materials and methodologies for the functional 3D printing technology. The reports are classified based on functionalities, including electronic conductive, thermally conductive, electromagnetic interference shielding, energy storage, and energy harvesting materials. This study attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities for 3D printing functional polymeric materials/devices, also seeks to enlighten the orientation of future research in this field.

Ultra-Stretchable and Self-Healing Anti-Freezing Strain Sensors Based on Hydrophobic Associated Polyacrylic Acid Hydrogels

“…Due to the addition of CTAB charged micelles and APS in the binary water-glycerol solution, the HAG 11 hydrogel can be used as a strain sensor even without conductive fillers and conductive polymers. The free-moving ions in HAG hydrogels can be ionized in water instead of glycerol, which helps form molecular-level ion-conducting channels in the HAG hydrogels [35,55]; the 3D network structure of HAG hydrogels provides the free-moving ions mobile channel [56,57]. In addition, the charged micelles make the micelle-bridging effect possible.…”

Polymer‐based EMI shielding composites with 3D conductive networks: A mini‐review

“…Polymer‐based conductive composites have gradually replaced the traditional metal‐based shielding materials because of their advantages, such as low density, high‐specific strength, stable chemical properties, and easy processing 7–9 . The relatively satisfactory EMI shielding performance can be achieved by simply adding magnetic or highly conductive fillers.…”

“…[4][5][6] Polymer-based conductive composites have gradually replaced the traditional metal-based shielding materials because of their advantages, such as low density, highspecific strength, stable chemical properties, and easy processing. [7][8][9] The relatively satisfactory EMI shielding performance can be achieved by simply adding magnetic or highly conductive fillers. However, it needs a large amount of fillers, which inevitably lead to the problems of processing difficulty and low mechanical properties, and the shielding effectiveness (SE) is still difficult to meet the demands of superior shielding performances.…”

Coupling selective laser sintering and supercritical CO2 foaming for 3D printed porous polyvinylidene fluoride with improved piezoelectric performance

“…In contrast, compared to piezoelectric lm materials, three-dimensional (3D) devices have the advantages of larger output power and stable energy storage. 13 In addition, reports have shown that porous structures have a strong strain response and regular charge distribution aer poling, facilitating the conversion of force to electricity. [14][15][16][17][18] The methods for preparing porous PVDF generally involve the hard template method, sol-gel method, and solution method.…”