Ionic liquids have been investigated for their utility as components in ion conductive electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries and for their ability to adsorb small molecule gases such carbon dioxide. Therefore, efficient and reproducible means of producing viable materials that are capable of incorporating large amounts of ionic liquid is of significant research interest. This project concerns the rapid preparation of ion gels using additive manufacturing by 3D-printing. Photo-curable resins that can be used as 3D-printable resins are appealing because of the reproducibility and rapid material synthesis that 3D-printing offers. 3D-printable resins comprised of butyl acrylate, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, 1,6-hexanediol dimethacrylate crosslinker, and diphenyl(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)phosphine oxide (TPO) photo-initiator were used to prepare a 3D-printable resin. 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate was incorporated to determine the structure property relationships of the 3D-printable resin as a function of ionic liquid incorporation. In addition, crosslinking density was varied by changing the percent incorporation of the 1,6-hexanediol dimethacrylate crosslinker. With 3D-printing times of less than 30 minutes, the formulated resins produce 3D-printed materials with elastomeric properties whose properties depend on crosslinking density. For example, thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry reveals that the glass transition temperature at 20 % crosslinker is 19.75 °C, and increasing the crosslinker to 40 % of the formulation by mass increases the glass transition temperature to 30.74 °C. Ongoing work includes expanding the 3D-printable monomers with larger pendant groups such as ethylhexyl methacrylate instead of butyl acrylate. It is anticipated that incorporating larger monomers will increase the free volume within the cured film to result in improved elastomeric properties.

Optimizing the formulation of a 3D-printable resin for producing ionic liquid based gels through additive manufacturing

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