(378c) Dual-Wavelength Digital Light Processing Toward Multimaterial 3D Printing

Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly referred to as 3D printing, is a powerful method for controlling the placement of molecular building blocks—providing increased flexibility in the design, function, and manufacturing of objects. In many AM techniques, object formation is achieved by material deposition directly to specified locations. In contrast, vat photopolymerization (VP) AM builds objects through light-patterned curing of a homogeneous liquid from a material reservoir. This photopatterning approach gives rise to high resolution (~100 µm) prints but makes multimaterial VP challenging. Engineering approaches, such as swapping of resin vats or fluidic devices, have been the predominate solutions. However, they have several drawbacks including increased print times, poor interfacial adhesion, increased manufacturing complexity, and resin contamination. In this talk, I will discuss a chemistry-oriented approach to multimaterial VP that incorporates orthogonal photochemical pathways into resin design. Toward this aim, I will describe the design of various resin formulations that achieve controlled stiffness, disparate solubility, and localized acidity toward creating stimuli responsive materials, dissolvable support structures, and multicolor architectures.