Green materials for manufacturing have risen to the forefront of public attention, provoked by the ongoing plastics pollution crisis and climate change. Terpenes and terpenoids, as well as other natural products, have been successfully incorporated into niche polymer applications, but the utility of such bioderived materials has been limited in additive manufacturing (AM) applications. A series of terpenes and terpenoid photopolymers has been explored for their ability to composite commodity polystyrene towards producing 4D shape memory polymer complex prototype scaffolds. Initial properties and recycling strategies for these materials is presented, leveraging low-cost depolymerization strategies as well as degradation to recover small molecules and modified polymers suitable upcycling to 3D printing materials with minimal modifications. Characterizations including physical properties, synthetic procedures, and processing required to achieve AM-suitable materials are used to demonstrated significant enhancements to the upcycled material properties.

4D printable terpene/terpenoid photopolymers for upcycling commodity polystyrene towards a circular economy

ACS Spring 2022

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