3D printing is a rapidly growing technique for making objects of any shape in a short time. Current technology uses an additive manufacturing process for making a three-dimensional object of almost any shape. Various materials are being explored and used for laser-sintered metals, photo-cured polymers, and extruded molten polymers. These materials used as "ink" for 3D printers normally possess conventional densities and other physical properties. The density of the material is the most important parameter for aerospace and other lightweight structural applications. In this research, silica aerogels are highly porous materials that consist of more than 90% nanoporous matrices and less than 10% amorphous silica particles that are interconnected. However, Silica aerogel is fragile, and which limits their application in 3D printing of sophisticated while robust structures. We have successfully developed silica aerogel-based resin with excellent properties, low density, high mechanical strength, and thermal insulation suitable for commercial SLA printers. Our results offer a potential route for fabricating any complex 3D ultra-weight object with exceptional mechanical strength. The physical properties of our 3D printed objects are better than the conventionally prepared resins, (shrinkage (&lt; 10%), density (1.5 g/cm<sup>3</sup>), Young's modulus ( 80MPa)) compared to the commercial resins (4 g cm-3, and &lt;80 MPa). Our material has the potential to replace other materials with higher densities but with equivalent or lower physical properties as 3D printing material. we present light and strong resin (dream material) for Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing capable of replacing the current 3D material in the market. we used this material to fabricate complex structures with custom geometries as a new way of utilizing Silica aerogel nanomaterials in cost-effective additive manufacturing.

Synthesis of silica aerogel polymeric composites resin for stereolithography 3D printing

ACS Spring 2022

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