Recyclable Photoresins For Light-Mediated Additive Manufacturing Towards Loop 3D Printing
Oihane Varela Manrique1, Xabier Lopez de Pariza1, Eva Blasco2,3, Haritz Sardon1
1POLYMAT, Department of Polymers and Advanced Materials: Physics, Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastián, 20018, Spain
2Heidelberg University, Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials (IMSEAM), 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
3Heidelberg University, Organic Chemistry Institute (OCI), 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
Additive manufacturing (AM) allows the creation of complex structures for a wide range of applications. Among its techniques, vat photopolymerization (VP) stands out due to its high printing speed, excellent surface finish, and micron-level resolution. Despite these advantages, most commercially available VP resins offer little to no recyclability. In response to this limitation, we propose a resin based on polythiourethane chemistry, which enables not only rapid printing through click reactions between polythiols and polyisocyanates but also chemical recycling, reshaping, and repair of printed parts. This strategy paves the way for a closed-loop and truly sustainable 3D printing process, demonstrated here using DLP technology.