New 3D Printing Method Is Simple, Sustainable, & Reversible

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Engineers on the UC San Diego have developed a 3D printing methodology that’s extremely easy and sustainable, utilizing only a liquid polymer ink and a calcium chloride salt resolution to print strong constructions. And what’s much more unimaginable than the simplicity of the brand new 3D printing methodology is that it’s totally reversible, which might show to assist making the manufacturing of supplies extra sustainable and eco-friendly sooner or later.

UC San Diego Right this moment stories that Jinhye Bae, the research’s senior writer, famous that “That is all performed beneath ambient circumstances, without having for added steps, specialised tools, poisonous chemical compounds, warmth or stress.” That contrasts vastly with the customary strategies for solidifying polymers, which normally require each energy-intensive procedures and harsh chemical compounds, so this new 3D printing methodology might show to be a very sustainable one.

“To display the flexibility of their methodology, the researchers printed constructions out of PNIPAM inks containing different supplies. For instance, they printed {an electrical} circuit utilizing an ink product of PNIPAM combined with carbon nanotubes, which efficiently powered a lightweight bulb. This printed circuit is also dissolved in recent water, showcasing the potential for creating water-soluble and recyclable digital elements.” – UC San Diego Right this moment

The workforce which developed this new 3D printing methodology revealed the outcomes of their work this previous Could within the journal Nature beneath the title “Sustainable 3D printing by reversible salting-out results with aqueous salt options.” In that paper, the authors state that the brand new methodology confirmed nice promise for being employed throughout quite a lot of totally different functions, and confirmed potential “for implementing sustainable 3D printing.”

“Such an unprecedented printing strategy utilizing the PNIPAM-based system demonstrated robust potential for a variety of functions, as an example, within the growth of a water-soluble disposable recyclable electrical circuit, a sensible provider for materials delivering, and a multi-stage tender actuator able to responding to environmental adjustments in salt concentrations on demand with out requiring chemical modifications or compatibility constraints.”

Three of the authors, Jinhye Bae, Joseph Liu, and Donghwan Ji, filed a patent for the brand new course of by the UCSD Workplace of Innovation and Commercialization, so we might presumably see this sustainable 3D printing methodology being put to work within the close to future.

Featured picture courtesy of Ji, D., Liu, J., Zhao, J. et al. Sustainable 3D printing by reversible salting-out results with aqueous salt options. Nat Commun 15, 3925 (2024).