3D printing of materials with chemically active functional groups can provide custom-designed structures for catalytic conversions. In this work, functionalized architectures were produced by directly photopolymerizing bifunctional monomers using a commercially available SLA 3D printer. Monomers containing reactive vinyl groups (to assemble the 3D object) as well as organic functional groups (active sites) were used. The 3D-printed architectures containing accessible carboxylic acids, amines and copper carboxylate functionalities catalyzed the Mannich, aldol and azide-alkyne cycloaddition (AAC) reactions, respectively. As a proof of concept, cuvette adaptors were printed to measure <i>in situ</i> kinetics of a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction using a conventional UV-Vis spectrometer. In addition, 3D-printed Cu acrylate based millifluidic devices were used to catalyze AAC reactions. The architectural control offered by 3D printing, as well as the control of their chemical composition, allows a facile production and customization of tools for studying chemical processes in convenient ways.

Direct 3D printing of catalytically active structures

255th National Meeting (2018)

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