A Dual Approach in Direct Ink Writing of Thermally Cured Shape Memory Rubber Toughened Epoxy
- Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States)
- Chulalongkorn Univ., Bangkok (Thailand)
- Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Bisphenol A-based epoxies are much used in a wide range of composite and coating applications due to their excellent thermomechanical properties. However, their 3D printability remains a challenge with most reported materials suffering from high brittleness and low toughness. In this work, we have described especially modified epoxy resins that enable 3D printing with both fast and slow curing rates. These materials exhibit greatly enhanced toughness, tunable thermomechanical properties, and excellent shape memory behavior. Two different printing systems, including a two-part static mixing printhead and a single extrusion printhead, were developed for fast- and slow-curing epoxies, respectively. The rheology of inks in both systems has been modified into printable thixotropic fluids with the aid of silica nanoparticles and other additives. Epoxide-functionalized telechelic polybutadiene was added into the resins, which are then introduced inside the epoxy network after cross-linking. The addition of polybutadiene rubber significantly improves the toughness (over 135%), fracture strain (over 200%), and shape memory behavior. By adding different amounts of the rubber telechelic, thermomechanical properties, including modulus, elongation, and Tg of epoxy, can be well controlled in a wide range to satisfy different applications.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1805008
- Journal Information:
- ACS Applied Polymer Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 12; ISSN 2637-6105
- Publisher:
- ACS PublicationsCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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