pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S11 - Additive Manufacturing
Oral Presentation
 
 

Thermoreversible Diels-Alder Thermoset for Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) Applications

Cerdan-Gomez Kenneth (1)*, Brancart Joost (2), Van Assche Guy (2), Van Hooreweder Brecht (3), Van Puyvelde Peter (1)

(1) Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology SMaRT, KU Leuven - Leuven - Belgium, (2) Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science FYSC, Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Brussels - Belgium, (3) Manufacturing Processes and Systems MaPS, KU Leuven - Leuven - Belgium

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) manufactures layer-by-layer 3D complex structures by sintering powder particles layer-by-layer irradiating with a laser. However, Polyamide-12 makes up about 95% of the SLS polymer market, thus the limited palette of available polymers suitable for SLS hinders the study of new applications. Thermoset resins are a popular choice for structural applications due to their great mechanical properties and thermochemical stability. However, due to their irreversible cross-linked nature, for some printing techniques they are hard to be processed layer-by-layer. In this regard, the use of dynamic covalent bonds has been recently proved to be a promising tool to 3D-print novel polymeric materials with reprocessable and self-healing capacities by applying an external trigger such as temperature or light. However, despite the encouraging progress in this field, there is still a strong lack of thermosets with high mechanical properties and reprocessability available for SLS. In this research, for the first time a polymer network was printed by SLS. A Diels-Alder (DA) thermoreversible polymer was designed for SLS applications. By using the right furan and maleimide monomers, a high crosslink density is achieved, thus a glassy thermoset can be prepared for further comminution and manufacturing. At low temperatures, the high DA equilibrium conversion results in the formation of the DA crosslinks, while at high temperatures the DA equilibrium shifts towards gradual dissociation of the DA adducts, allowing for reprocessing of the reversible networks. Furthermore, the printed part exhibits self-healing ability. Afterwards, the material recovers its initial mechanical properties upon cooling, reforming the Diels-Alder crosslinks. This extends the built lifetime upon damage and brings the chance to be further remilled once the material loses its functionality due to unhealable damage, being again manufactured and enhancing the polymer circularity.