Room Temperature Extrusion Printing of Polymer Composites

This presentation will address the use of the additive manufacturing technique direct ink writing (DIW) for the production of polymer composites. DIW is a scalable room temperature process in which a shear thinning and thixotropic ink is extruded onto a substrate to give a printed structures that is cured by chemical cross-linking or solvent removal. A variety of feedstocks can be used as inks for DIW, including polymer solutions or liquid polymer with granular particles, hydrogels, liquid metals, emulsions, and foams. The Pentzer group has developed inks for DIW by tailoring the particle filler and polymer matrix towards different applications. This presentation will address the development of polymer matrix for degradable and modifiable porous structures and printing of aerogels into inks for thermal insulation.