Unleashing the Potential of 3D Printing: Bridging Chemistry and Applications

摘要

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, often referred to as additive manufacturing, represents a remarkable technological breakthrough that has fundamentally altered the landscape of how we fabricate physical objects.[1] It offers an efficient and precise method for materializing digital designs into physical items. In contrast to traditional subtractive manufacturing processes, which involve material removal to shape an object, 3D printing meticulously builds items layer by layer, depositing material exactly where it is needed. Since the first commercialization of the stereolithography 3D printer by Dr. Chuck Hull in the early 1980s, the field has witnessed substantial growth, resulting in the development of a variety of 3D printing platforms, including fused deposition modelling, stereolithography (SLS), digital light processing (DLP), direct-ink-writing (DIW), and more.[2] The advancements have successfully translated into significant scientific, technological, and economic impacts on our modern society. What began as a tool for rapid prototyping has evolved into an advanced materials manufacturing platform with applications ranging from biomaterials and soft robotics to construction. More recently, this approach has unleashed an unprecedented field of possibilities, transcending the boundaries of various industries. For instance, in aerospace, 3D printing is commonly employed for the fabrication of intricate and lightweight components, while in healthcare, it enables the rapid production of patient-specific implants and prosthetics. More surprisingly, 3D printing technology has made its mark on the worlds of consumer goods and art, where artists harness its capabilities to create astonishing sculptures and custom-designed creations. In this special issue, we present a selection of captivating examples that highlight the latest advancements in 3D printing. These advancements encompass a wide spectrum of developments, ranging from the creation of novel resins and innovative processes to the fabrication of functional materials with enhanced properties. These advanced printable materials find application in batteries, sensors, and a variety of other cutting-edge technologies. To enhance the utility of 3D printing in bioapplications, there is a pressing need for the development of water-soluble photoinitiators. Addressing this need in article 2300772, Xiao and Lalevée's teams synthesized and characterized two novel carbazole derivatives that could be used as especially efficient water-soluble photoinitiators in combination with co-initiators. Furthermore, multi-component photoinitiating systems based on these carbazole derivatives could be applied for the in-situ preparation of hydrogels containing silver nanoparticles via laser writing procedure with LED@405 nm as light source, and the produced 3D hydrogels exhibited antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli. To fully unlock the potential of 3D printing, there's an urgent need for the implementation of innovative polymerization methods that provide greater control over chemical properties and network formation, but also facilitate the integration of multiple functionalities into printed materials. Most conventional 3D printing techniques rely on polymers produced through conventional free radical or cationic polymerization methods, which inherently limit the range of properties that can be achieved in these materials.[3] A promising avenue for enhancing the versatility of resins lies in the implementation of living polymerization techniques, a field that has seen significant development over the past three decades. In an advancement in the integration of living polymerization into 3D printing, in article 2207637, Zhu and colleagues have introduced cationic reversible addition- fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) in a digital light processing (DLP)-based 3D printing system. They successfully demonstrated the implementation of photoinduced cationic RAFT polymeri