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Title: Living additive manufacturing: Transformation of parent gels into diversely functionalized daughter gels made possible by visible light photoredox catalysis

Journal Article · · ACS Central Science
 [1];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [3]; ORCiD logo [5];  [3]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China); University of Pittsburgh
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
  5. Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States)

Light-initiated additive manufacturing techniques typically rely on layer-by-layer addition or continuous extraction of polymers formed via nonliving, free radical polymerization methods that render the final materials “dead” toward further monomer insertion; the polymer chains within the materials cannot be reactivated to induce chain extension. An alternative “living additive manufacturing” strategy would involve the use of photocontrolled living radical polymerization to spatiotemporally insert monomers into dormant “parent” materials to generate more complex and diversely functionalized “daughter” materials. Here, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept study of living additive manufacturing using end-linked polymer gels embedded with trithiocarbonate iniferters that can be activated by photoinduced single-electron transfer from an organic photoredox catalyst in solution. This system enables the synthesis of a wide range of chemically and mechanically differentiated daughter gels from a single type of parent gel via light-controlled modification of the parent’s average composition, strand length, and/or cross-linking density. Furthermore, daughter gels that are softer than their parent, stiffer than their parent, larger but with the same modulus as their parent, thermally responsive, polarity responsive, healable, and weldable are all realized.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-90ER45438
OSTI ID:
1356090
Journal Information:
ACS Central Science, Journal Name: ACS Central Science Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 3; ISSN 2374-7943
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Additive manufacturing with stimuli-responsive materials journal January 2018
Visible-light-induced metathesis reaction between diselenide and ditelluride journal January 2019
Visible-light-mediated, additive-free, and open-to-air controlled radical polymerization of acrylates and acrylamides journal January 2019
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3D printing of polymeric materials based on photo-RAFT polymerization journal January 2020
Counting loops in sidechain-crosslinked polymers from elastic solids to single-chain nanoparticles journal January 2019
Role of a polymeric component in the phase separation of ternary fluid mixtures: A dissipative particle dynamics study preprint January 2018