NEXT GENERATION 3D PRINTING RESINS DERIVED FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES

Vinyl ester resins (VERs) are used to produce polymeric materials for a variety of commercial and military applications due to their relatively high strengths, moduli, thermal stabilities, and chemical resistances.  Most commercially available VERs are petroleum-based and are typically cured into polymeric materials via traditional manufacturing techniques, such as resin transfer molding, compression molding, and thermal curing.  Renewable, bio-based sources have been identified as more environmentally sustainable, longer-term solutions to popular platform chemicals derived from petroleum.  In an effort to move towards sustainability, bio-based feedstocks have become major sources of interest for the development of polymers and composites.  To achieve similar properties to incumbent VERs, bio-based resins need to possess intrinsic molecular characteristics (i.e., a balance between aromatic and aliphatic contents assembled in strategic methods) to impart favorable thermal, viscoelastic, and mechanical properties.  Additionally, additive manufacturing (AM), more commonly known as 3D printing, has gained significant traction as a favorable manufacturing technique over traditional methods due to the ability to create customizable parts on demand with complex geometries.  One method of AM, vat photopolymerization (VPP), is a technique that utilizes photocurable liquid resins to create a customizable part layer by layer.  Such liquid resins must have a low viscosity and the ability to be cured via light in order to be viable for VPP.