New 3D Printing Method Is Simple, Sustainable, & Reversible – CleanTechnica

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Engineers at the UC San Diego have developed a 3D printing method that is incredibly simple and sustainable, using just a liquid polymer ink and a calcium chloride salt solution to print solid structures. And what’s even more incredible than the simplicity of the new 3D printing method is that it is fully reversible, which could prove to help making the manufacturing of materials more sustainable and eco-friendly in the future.

UC San Diego Today reports that Jinhye Bae, the study’s senior author, noted that “This is all done under ambient conditions, with no need for additional steps, specialized equipment, toxic chemicals, heat or pressure.” That contrasts greatly with the customary methods for solidifying polymers, which usually require both energy-intensive procedures and harsh chemicals, so this new 3D printing method could prove to be a truly sustainable one.

“To demonstrate the versatility of their method, the researchers printed structures out of PNIPAM inks containing other materials. For example, they printed an electrical circuit using an ink made of PNIPAM mixed with carbon nanotubes, which successfully powered a light bulb. This printed circuit could also be dissolved in fresh water, showcasing the potential for creating water-soluble and recyclable electronic components.” – UC San Diego Today

The team which developed this new 3D printing method published the results of their work this past May in the journal Nature under the title “Sustainable 3D printing by reversible salting-out effects with aqueous salt solutions.” In that paper, the authors state that the new method showed great promise for being employed across a variety of different applications, and showed potential “for implementing sustainable 3D printing.”

“Such an unprecedented printing approach using the PNIPAM-based system demonstrated strong potential for a wide range of applications, for instance, in the development of a water-soluble disposable recyclable electric circuit, a smart carrier for material delivering, and a multi-stage soft actuator capable of responding to environmental changes in salt concentrations on demand without requiring chemical modifications or compatibility constraints.”

Three of the authors, Jinhye Bae, Joseph Liu, and Donghwan Ji, filed a patent for the new process through the UCSD Office of Innovation and Commercialization, so we could possibly see this sustainable 3D printing method being put to work in the near future.

Featured image courtesy of Ji, D., Liu, J., Zhao, J. et al. Sustainable 3D printing by reversible salting-out effects with aqueous salt solutions. Nat Commun 15, 3925 (2024).