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Smith P, Hu J, Griffin A, Robertson M, Güillen Obando A, Bounds E, Dunn CB, Ye C, Liu L, Qiang Z. Accurate additive manufacturing of lightweight and elastic carbons using plastic precursors. Nat Commun 2024; 15:838. [PMID: 38287004 PMCID: PMC10825225 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45211-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 01/31/2024] Open
Abstract
Despite groundbreaking advances in the additive manufacturing of polymers, metals, and ceramics, scaled and accurate production of structured carbons remains largely underdeveloped. This work reports a simple method to produce complex carbon materials with very low dimensional shrinkage from printed to carbonized state (less than 4%), using commercially available polypropylene precursors and a fused filament fabrication-based process. The control of macrostructural retention is enabled by the inclusion of fiber fillers regardless of the crosslinking degree of the polypropylene matrix, providing a significant advantage to directly control the density, porosity, and mechanical properties of 3D printed carbons. Using the same printed plastic precursors, different mechanical responses of derived carbons can be obtained, notably from stiff to highly compressible. This report harnesses the power of additive manufacturing for producing carbons with accurately controlled structure and properties, while enabling great opportunities for various applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Smith
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Jiayue Hu
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, 1801N Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA
| | - Anthony Griffin
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Mark Robertson
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Alejandro Güillen Obando
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Ethan Bounds
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Carmen B Dunn
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Changhuai Ye
- State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China
| | - Ling Liu
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, 1801N Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
| | - Zhe Qiang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, 1801N Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
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Puppi D, Braccini S, Battisti A, Manariti A, Pecorini G, Samal SK. Additive Manufacturing of Wet-Spun Polysulfone Medical Implants. ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2023; 9:5418-5429. [PMID: 37691546 DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.3c00711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
Research on additive manufacturing (AM) of high-performance polymers provides novel materials and technologies for advanced applications in different sectors, such as aerospace and biomedical engineering. The present article is contextualized in this research trend by describing a novel AM protocol for processing a polysulfone (PSU)/N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solution into medical implant prototypes. In particular, an AM technique involving the patterned deposition of the PSU/NMP mixture in a coagulation bath was employed to fabricate PSU implants with different predefined shape, fiber diameter, and macropore size. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis highlighted a fiber transversal cross-section morphology characterized by a dense external skin layer and an inner macroporous/microporous structure, as a consequence of the nonsolvent-induced polymer solidification process. Physical-chemical and thermal characterization of the fabricated samples demonstrated that PSU processing did not affect its macromolecular structure and glass-transition temperature, as well as that after post-processing PSU implants did not contain residual solvent or nonsolvent. Mechanical characterization showed that the developed PSU scaffold tensile and compressive modulus could be changed by varying the macroporous architecture. In addition, PSU scaffolds supported the in vitro adhesion and proliferation of the BALB/3T3 clone A31 mouse embryo cell line. These findings encourage further research on the suitability of the developed processing method for the fabrication of customized PSU implants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dario Puppi
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, UdR INSTM - Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Simona Braccini
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, UdR INSTM - Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Antonella Battisti
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, p.zza San Silvestro 12, 56127 Pisa, Italy
| | - Antonella Manariti
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, UdR INSTM - Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Gianni Pecorini
- Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, UdR INSTM - Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Sangram Keshari Samal
- Laboratory of Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine for Advanced Therapies, Indian Council of Medical Research-Regional Medical Research Center, Bhubaneswar 751013, Odisha, India
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Smith P, Obando AG, Griffin A, Robertson M, Bounds E, Qiang Z. Additive Manufacturing of Carbon Using Commodity Polypropylene. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2023; 35:e2208029. [PMID: 36763617 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202208029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Revised: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Carbon materials are essential to the development of modern society with indispensable use in various applications, such as energy storage and high-performance composites. Despite great progress, on-demand carbon manufacturing with control over 3D macroscopic configuration is still an intractable challenge, hindering their direct use in many areas requiring structured materials and products. This work introduces a simple and scalable method to generate complex, large-scale carbon structures using easily accessible materials and technologies. 3D-printed, commercial polypropylene (PP) parts can be thermally stabilized through cracking-facilitated diffusion and crosslinking. The newly elucidated mechanism from this work allows thick PP parts to yield carbonaceous products with complex structures through a subsequent pyrolysis step. The approach for enabling PP-to-carbon conversion has consistent product yield and controlled dimensional shrinkage. Under optimized processing conditions, these PP-derived carbons exhibit robust mechanical properties and excellent joule heating performance, demonstrated by their versatile use as heating elements. Furthermore, this process can be extended to recycled PP, enabling the conversion of waste plastic materials to value-added products. This work provides an innovative approach to create structured carbon materials with direct access to complex geometry, which can be transformative to, and broadly benefit, many important technological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Smith
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Alejandro Guillen Obando
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Anthony Griffin
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Mark Robertson
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Ethan Bounds
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
| | - Zhe Qiang
- School of Polymer Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA
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Suresh A, Rowan SJ, Liu C. Macroscale Fabrication of Lightweight and Strong Porous Carbon Foams through Template-Coating Pair Design. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2023; 35:e2206416. [PMID: 36527732 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202206416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2022] [Revised: 12/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Manufacturing of low-density-high-strength carbon foams can benefit the construction, transportation, and packaging industries. One successful route to lightweight and mechanically strong carbon foams involves pyrolysis of polymeric architectures, which is inevitably accompanied by drastic volumetric shrinkage (usually >98%). As such, a challenge of these materials lies in maintaining bulk dimensions of building struts that span orders of magnitude difference in length scale from centimeters to nanometers. This work demonstrates fabrication of macroscale low-density-high-strength carbon foams that feature exceptional dimensional stability through pyrolysis of robust template-coating pairs. The template serves as the architectural blueprint and contains strength-imparting properties (e.g., high node density and small strut dimensions); it is composed of a low char-yielding porous polystyrene backbone with a high carbonization-onset temperature. The coating serves to imprint and transcribe the template architecture into pyrolytic carbon; it is composed of a high char-yielding conjugated polymer with a relatively low carbonization-onset temperature. The designed carbonization mismatch enables structural inheritance, while the decomposition mismatch affords hollow struts, minimizing density. The carbons synthesized through this new framework exhibit remarkable dimensional stability (≈80% dimension retention; ≈50% volume retention) and some of the highest specific strengths (≈0.13 GPa g-1 cm3 ) among reported carbon foams derived from porous polymer templates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adarsh Suresh
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
| | - Stuart J Rowan
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, 5735 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
- Chemical and Engineering Sciences, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 Cass Avenue, Lemont, IL, 60439, USA
| | - Chong Liu
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
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Verker R, Wallach ER, Vidavsky Y, Bolker A, Gouzman I. Novel axial dynamic mechanical analysis setup for thermo-analytical study and curing kinetics optimization of thermoset adhesives. THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 2022; 93:034104. [PMID: 35364994 DOI: 10.1063/5.0079002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2021] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Thermo-analytical studies of thermoset adhesives, either during research and development or in quality assurance activities, involve the application of various analytical equipment for adhesive characterization, from initial mixing to final product decomposition. Gelation is usually measured with rheometers or dynamic mechanical analyzers (DMAs); curing, post-curing, and curing kinetics are often studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Glass transition temperature (Tg) is measured via DSC or DMA, and finally, thermal decomposition measurements are done using thermal gravimetric analysis. Here, we present a new curing kinetics optimization module (C-KOM), an extension to an axial DMA, and a protocol for its usage, which combines elements from all of the above thermo-analytical techniques into one tool. As a case study, we apply C-KOM to investigate the effect of the curing temperature on the physical properties of an epoxy adhesive including gelation and end of cure points as well as its Tg. The data collected via C-KOM were used to extract the adhesive's curing reaction rates and its activation energy. Our research allowed us to compare and evaluate previously suggested curing procedures and assess their validity. As a final step, the thermal decomposition temperature of the epoxy adhesive was also identified via C-KOM. The newly suggested C-KOM setup provides a fast path toward characterization and optimization of the curing processes of thermoset materials in a way that was not available before.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Verker
- Space Environment Department, Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel
| | - E R Wallach
- Space Environment Department, Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel
| | - Y Vidavsky
- Space Environment Department, Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel
| | - A Bolker
- Space Environment Department, Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel
| | - I Gouzman
- Space Environment Department, Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel
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Weyhrich CW, Long TE. Additive manufacturing of high‐performance engineering polymers: present and future. POLYM INT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/pi.6343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Cody W Weyhrich
- School of Molecular Sciences, Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
| | - Timothy E Long
- School of Molecular Sciences, Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
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Arrington CB, Hegde M, Meenakshisundaram V, Dennis JM, Williams CB, Long TE. Supramolecular Salts for Additive Manufacturing of Polyimides. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2021; 13:48061-48070. [PMID: 34587443 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c13493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Recent advances in vat photopolymerization (VP) additive manufacturing of fully aromatic polyimides employed photoreactive high-molecular-weight precursors dissolved at modest loadings (<20 wt %) in organic solvent. These earlier efforts revealed high isotropic shrinkage, approaching 52% on a linear basis while converting to the desired polyimide. To increase the polyimide precursor concentration and decrease shrinkage during VP processing of high-performance polyimides, photoreactive fully aromatic polyimide and thermoplastic polyetherimide (PEI) supramolecular salt precursors now serve as versatile alternatives. Both pyromellitic dianhydride-4,4'-oxydianiline (PMDA-ODA) and 4,4'-(4,4'-isopropylidene-diphenoxy)diphthalic anhydride-meta phenylene diamine (BPADA-mPD) supramolecular dicarboxylate-diammonium salts, termed polysalts, provided prerequisite rheological performance and photoreactivity for VP. Solutions (50 wt %) of both photoactive polysalts exhibited viscosities more than two orders of magnitude lower than previously reported polyimide precursor solutions for VP. In addition, VP of 50 wt % polysalt solutions yielded high resolution, self-supporting organogel structures. During thermal postprocessing to the desired fully aromatic polyimide and PEI, photocrosslinked polysalt organogels exhibited retention of part shape in concert with linear isotropic shrinkage of only 26%, the lowest reported value using organogel strategies for VP of fully aromatic polyimides. Furthermore, the imidized structures exhibited comparable thermal and mechanical properties to analogous polyimides synthesized using classical methodologies for 2D films. The combination of facile synthesis and increased precursor concentrations designates polysalt polyimide precursors as a versatile platform for additive manufacturing of well-defined 3D polyimide structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clay B Arrington
- Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing & School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85281, United States
- Department of Chemistry, Macromolecules Innovation Institute (MII), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Maruti Hegde
- Department of Applied Physical Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Viswanath Meenakshisundaram
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Macromolecules Innovation Institute (MII), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Joseph M Dennis
- United States Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21005, United States
| | - Christopher B Williams
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Macromolecules Innovation Institute (MII), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States
| | - Timothy E Long
- Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing & School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85281, United States
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