Nanoparticle Composite Inks for 4D Printing Shape Shifting Structures

Mentors

• 

  William Boley

  Assistant Professor (ME, MSE)

• 

  Javier M. Morales Ferrer

  Additive Assembly Laboratory Alumni

Project Description

The Additive Assembly Lab (AAL) focuses on understanding and harnessing the relationships between materials synthesis, assembly process, and multi-scale architecture in additive manufacturing (AM) to create new functional materials and devices. Development in AM techniques are rapidly growing where 4D printing multifunctional architectures provides numerous potential applications in diverse areas including deployable systems, dynamic optics, soft robotics, and medicine.

Here in the AAL we are exploring ways in which we can exploit and implement this 4D printing approach into manufacturing of different shape shifting applications. At the moment these shape shifting structures are limited by their mechanical properties, which drives us to explore different types of polymers and polymer nanocomposite systems that can overcome the current limitation. The material, as it is, cannot be implemented into direct ink writing (DIW) applications due to the lack of appropriate rheological properties.

Thus, we are exploring the incorporation of different nanoparticle systems to impart the necessary shear thinning, shear yielding response into the inks for 3D printability in the context of DIW. Hence, this will allow the formulation of inks with suitable properties for DIW, which ultimately can be applied to 4D printing applications.

In addition to 3D printability, this project is focused on incorporating other nanoparticles into the polymer system to enable further tuning of stimulus and mechanical properties of the cured structures. In this project, the student will be working with mechanical and stimulus response testing of different materials and preparing suitable inks for DIW. Aside from ink preparation, the student will work closely with the design of print paths to develop shape shifting structures. After designing the print path, the student will be printing samples and characterizing the different shape-shifting and mechanical responses of the 4D printed structures.

Timeline

Weeks 1-2: Get the proper training to work on the lab and on how to operate the needed equipment.
Weeks 3-4: Work with the ink’s preparation and with the design of the print path.
Weeks 4-6: Print sample and help the RET to get training and up to speed.
Weeks 6-8:Keep working with printing of samples, simultaneously start getting characterization data from the printed samples.                                                                                                                                                Weeks 8-10: Finalize printing (if needed), characterize samples and prepare for poster/presentation sections.