Sustainability, Biodegradability and Circularity in Photopolymer Resins for 3D Printing

One of the unresolved consequences of the massive global production of plastic is the lack of proper waste management. As a consequence of technological limitations as well as inefficient collection and sorting methods, current recycling schemes are underperforming. In part this is a result of the inherent linear design of our polymer systems, and lack of consideration of waste management and environmental impact of the waste that does escape into the environment, at the polymer design stage. We, among others, are focussing on creating tools that could be applied to design polymers ‘with the end in mind’ – i.e. to incorporate chemical bonding that can be easily processed to make polymers but readily reversed either ‘on demand’ for recycling, or upon exposure to environmental triggers. To this end, one strategy in our research has focussed on the challenge to design photoset materials that can be processed by advanced methods such as additive manufacturing that are sustainably sourced but can be readily circularised. This talk will detail our efforts in this field to improve the sustainability of photopolymer resins through the use of sustainably sourced monomers, plastic upcycling and the development of closed loop recycling of photoset materials.