According to Xiamen University (XMU), a research team led by Professor Wu Dezhi at the Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and Technology has achieved a significant breakthrough in the 3D printing of thermoset materials. The study, titled ‘Laser-assisted direct three-dimensional printing of free-standing thermoset devices’, is published in Nature.
Current direct ink writing methods assisted by thermal, acoustic, or ultraviolet fields face limitations in curing efficiency, material compatibility, and performance tuning, and often require the deposition and removal of supporting materials.
The team has developed an approach that integrates in situ laser-induced solidification with direct ink writing, enabling the fabrication of functional and arbitrary free-standing thermoset structures without support materials.
During printing, a focused laser irradiates the microscale polymer jet, inducing rapid crosslinking within less than 0.25 seconds through a strong photothermal effect. This method achieves a structural resolution of 50 micrometers and allows mechanical properties to be tuned by up to tenfold and electrical properties by up to twentyfold.
Offering a fast, stable, and programmable manufacturing strategy for thermoset structures, the technology has the potential to advance applications in flexible electronics, microfluidics, soft robotics, organ-on-chips, and biomedical scaffolds that require complex three-dimensional architectures and multifunctional integration.
