Progress in Photocurable 3D Printing of Photosensitive Polyurethane: A Review

Abstract

In recent years, as a class of advanced additive manufacturing (AM) technology, photocurable 3D printing has gained increasing attention. Based on its outstanding printing efficiency and molding accuracy, it is employed in various fields, such as industrial manufacturing, biomedical, soft robotics, electronic sensors. Photocurable 3D printing is a molding technology based on the principle of area‐selective curing of photopolymerization reaction. At present, the main printing material suitable for this technology is the photosensitive resin, a composite mixture consisting of a photosensitive prepolymer, reactive monomer, photoinitiator, and other additives. As the technique research deepens and its application gets more developed, the design of printing materials suitable for different applications is becoming the hotspot. Specifically, these materials not only can be photocured but also have excellent properties, such as elasticity, tear resistance, fatigue resistance. Photosensitive polyurethanes can endow photocured resin with desirable performance due to their unique molecular structure including the inherent alternating soft and hard segments, and microphase separation. For this reason, this review summarizes and comments on the research and application progress of photocurable 3D printing of photosensitive polyurethanes, analyzing the advantages and shortcomings of this technology, also offering an outlook on this rapid development direction.

Democratising dry adhesion development with consumer-grade AM

“…The off-the-shelf BASF FL300 resin, with a typical shore A hardness of 40 (Fei et al, 2023), was chosen as it closely resembles the 44-54 shore A hardness of the common Sylagard-184 PDMS (Johnston et al, 2014). Using a resin with similar material properties as PDMS facilitates comparison to previous works implementing dry adhesion by PDMS casting.…”

Recent Advances in the Additive Manufacturing of Stimuli‐Responsive Soft Polymers

“…The basic principle involves the exposure of a photocurable resin to UV radiation in a predefined method. [ 236–240 ] Photopolymerization‐based AM technology is broadly categorized into two main types: vat photopolymerization and material jetting (MJ). [ 241–243 ] Vat photopolymerization involves the selective curing of a liquid photopolymer resin with a light source to create a solid part.…”

Three‐dimensional‐printed Ni‐based scaffold design accelerates bubble escape for ampere‐level alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

“…A promising solution is offered by additive manufacturing, also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, due to its high flexibility and simplicity in structural design. [31][32][33] Through the utilization of available data, various geometric structures can be designed, and 3D printing technology can be used for the fabrication of electrode electrocatalysts, leading to the economical and efficient development of all-in-one electrodes. [34,35] One of the widely used 3D printing technologies, digital light processing (DLP), is characterized by its high precision, low cost, and remarkable efficiency.…”