Designing Nanostructured 3D Printed Materials by Controlling Macromolecular Architecture

Abstract

Nanostructured polymeric materials play important roles in many advanced applications, however, controlling the morphologies of polymeric thermosets remains a challenge. This work uses multi-arm macro-CTAs to mediate polymerization-induced microphase separation (PIMS) and prepare nanostructured materials via photoinduced 3D printing. The characteristic length scale of microphase-separated domains is determined by the macroCTA arm length, while nanoscale morphologies are controlled by the macroCTA architecture. Specifically, using 2-and 4-arm macroCTAs provides materials with different morphologies compared to analogous monofunctional linear macroCTAs at similar compositions. The mechanical properties of these nanostructured thermosets can also be tuned while maintaining the desired morphologies. Using multi-arm macroCTAs can thus broaden the scope of accessible nanostructures for extended applications, including the fabrication of actuators and potential drug delivery devices.

Thermoplastic elastomer obtained by photopolymerization‐induced concomitant macrophase and microphase separations

“…44,45 Among the abundant photopolymerization literature, there is a growing interest on the structural aspect of whether photoinitiated PIPS, [26][27][28][29] or photoinitiated PIMS systems 34,36,46,47 and very recently toward stereolithography 3D printing. [48][49][50][51][52] In the present paper, we demonstrate that photoinitiated PIPS and PIMS strategies can be associated to produce hierarchically structured recyclable TPE. To do so, crosslinker-free formulations based on reactive or inert presynthesized ABA triblock copolymers are investigated.…”

Photoinduced RAFT Step‐Growth Polymerization toward Degradable Living Polymer Networks

“…[ 11‐12 ] More recently, some photoRDRP‐based 3D printing techniques have been developed for fabricating PNs with dormant initiating sites. [ 13‐22 ]…”