This work intends to develop a rapidly curable polymer network system for application as 3D printing materials. Polyamides are known for their superior mechanical properties, acid and base resistance and fire resistance properties. Therefore, products derived out of these class of polymers are suitable for a range of commodity as well as specialized applications. In this work, we are targeting to develop a tailor made system that can be cured with a pre-determined incubation time and recycled back to the monomers on demand. For 3D printing applications, at least three order increase in viscosity in fairly short period is desired before and after injection. This will allow to retain the shape of the product and help us in developing miniature designs. We have achieved a similar objective with our system so far as reflected from the rheological studies. Recently, we had reported a dynamic polyamide network system that readily cured under room temperature conditions with 5 h. The activated tetra ester (TPMD) promptly reacted with the oligoamine compounds under catalyst free conditions and tough networks with tensile strength above 20 MPa and modulus in the GPa were achieved suggesting the networks may be utilized for various load bearing applications. To utilize these for 3D applications, the curing time needed further optimization. For effective 3D printing, the curing is desired to be achieved in less than 5 mins. To further improve the rate of polymerization, we used a phase transfer catalyst, i.e. Tetrabutyal ammonium bromide, cyclodextrin or crown-ether as the catalyst. The fast curing time allows the material to be used for the development of degradable 3D printed products for different application. Few demonstrations are presented by creating different shapes as a proof of concept.

Dynamic polyamides with tailored curing times for real time 3D printing application

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.