For example, oil extracted from soybean seeds is the largest crop oil in the world. In recent years, it has been recognized that development of bio-based materials is important for improving environmental sustainability, decreasing demand and consumption of petroleum chemicals, reducing CO 2 emissions, as well as mitigating many other adverse impacts on ecosystems. While many commercial photopolymers such as acrylate, cyanate ester and unsaturated polyester have been used for SLA printing, , ], these materials are usually obtained through a multi-step synthesis process using petroleum-based chemicals. These resins for SLA 3D printing are typically composed of photoinitiators, monomers/oligomers, and other additives, , ]. Stereolithography (SLA)-based 3D printing converts liquid photopolymer resins to objects with precisely controlled architectures through layer-by-layer curing, , ]. Overall, this work provides great potential opportunities to design the bio-based functional sensor with on-demand control over structures by SLA printing. The application demonstrators include fabrication of flexible interdigital electrode sensors and temperature-responsive sensors.

In addition, presence of permanent and reversible networks formed by MESO and POSS endows the POSS/MESO composites with good shape memory property. Furthermore, these materials have a very low dielectric constant of 2.97 at 1 MHz, which is desired for microelectronic applications to overcome signal delay and energy loss. With the addition of 5 wt% POSS, POSS/MESO composites can exhibit excellent mechanical properties, including tensile strength (18.9 MPa), elongation at break (19.8%), and toughness (399.2 MJ/m3).

In general, the viscosity of POSS/MESO composite resins is in the range of 0.40–0.58 Pa s, making them viable for SLA printing designs. Epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and methacrylic acid are used to synthesize a biobased methacrylate resin (MESO) via a ring-opening reaction, followed by incorporation of POSS into polymer matrix. This work demonstrates a novel bio-based and low dielectric resin containing polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) for stereolithography (SLA) printing to fabricate sensors and shape memory materials with complex geometry.

Improving sustainability and functionality of resins is important for the development of 3D printing technologies.

Uniz 3d printer