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Recently, the manufacturing of porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with engineered porosity has gained considerable interest due to its tunable material properties and diverse applications. An innovative approach to control the porosity of PDMS is to use transient liquid phase water to improve its mechanical properties, which has been explored in this work. Adjusting the ratios of deionized water to the PDMS precursor during blending and subsequent curing processes allows for controlled porosity, yielding water emulsion foam with tailored properties. The PDMS-to-water weight ratios were engineered ranging from 100:0 to 10:90, with the 65:35 specimen exhibiting the best mechanical properties with a Young’s Modulus of 1.17 MPa, energy absorption of 0.33 MPa, and compressive strength of 3.50 MPa. This led to a porous sample exhibiting a 31.46% increase in the modulus of elasticity over a bulk PDMS sample. Dowsil SE 1700 was then added, improving the storage capabilities of the precursor. The optimal storage temperature was probed, with −60 °C resulting in great pore stability throughout a three-week duration. The possibility of using these water emulsion foams for paste extrusion additive manufacturing (AM) was also analyzed by implementing a rheological modifier, fumed silica. Fumed silica’s impact on viscosity was examined, revealing that 9 wt% of silica demonstrates optimal rheological behaviors for AM, bearing a viscosity of 10,290 Pa·s while demonstrating shear-thinning and thixotropic behavior. This study suggests that water can be used as pore-formers for PDMS in conjunction with AM to produce engineered materials and structures for aerospace, medical, and defense industries as sensors, microfluidic devices, and lightweight structures.

The integration of 3D printed sensors into hosting structures has become a growing area of research due to simplified assembly procedures, reduced system complexity, and lower fabrication cost. Embedding 3D printed sensors into structures or bonding the sensors on surfaces are the two techniques for the integration of sensors. This review extensively discusses the fabrication of sensors through different additive manufacturing techniques. Various additive manufacturing techniques dedicated to manufacture sensors as well as their integration techniques during the manufacturing process will be discussed. This review will also discuss the basic sensing mechanisms of integrated sensors and their applications. It has been proven that integrating 3D printed sensors into infrastructures can open new possibilities for research and development in additive manufacturing and sensor materials for smart goods and the Internet of Things.

This research studied multifunctional sensing capabilities on nanocomposites composed of poly(vinylidene) fluoride (PVDF), BaTiO₃(BT), and multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) fabricated by fused-deposition modeling 3D printing. To improve the dielectric property within BT/PVDF composites, CNTs have been utilized to promote ultrahigh polarization density and local micro-capacitor among BT and polymer matrix. The 3D printing process provides homogeneous dispersion of nanoparticles, alleviating agglomeration of nanoparticles, and reducing micro-crack/voids in matrix which can enhance their dielectric property. In this research, we demonstrated that by utilizing unique advantages of this material combination and a 3D printing technique, sensing capabilities for temperature and strain can be engineered with different content variations of included BT and CNTs. It is observed that the sensing capability for temperature change with respect to a 25–150℃ range can be improved as both BT and CNTs’ inclusions increase and is maximal with 1.7 wt.% CNTs/60 wt.% BT/PVDF nanocomposites, while the sensing capability for strain change in a 0–20% range is maximal with 1 wt.% CNTs/12 wt.% BT/PVDF nanocomposites. In addition, it is found that the best combination for mechanical toughness is 1 wt.% CNTs/12 wt.% BT/PVDF with 24.2 MPa and 579% in ultimate tensile strength and failure strain, respectively. These results show the technique to 3D print multifunctional nanocomposites with temperature and strain sensing capabilities as well as increased mechanical property. Furthermore, this research demonstrated the feasibility for large-scale multifunctional sensor device manufacturing with freedom of design, low-cost, and an accelerated process.

A simple and facile method was developed to fabricate functional bulk barium titanate (BaTiO₃,BT) ceramics using the paste extrusion 3D printing technique. TheBTceramic is a lead‐free ferroelectric material widely used for various applications in sensors, energy storage, and harvesting. There are several traditional methods (eg, tape casting) to process bulkBTceramics but they have disadvantages such as difficult handing without shape deformation, demolding, complex geometric shapes, expansive molds, etc. In this research, we utilized the paste extrusion 3D printing technique to overcome the traditional issues and developed printable ceramic suspensions containingBTceramic powder, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), N,N‐dimethylformamide (DMF) through simple mixing method and chemical formulation. ThisPVDFsolution erformed multiple roles of binder, plasticizer, and dispersant for excellent manufacturability while providing high volume percent and density of the final bulk ceramic. Based on empirical data, it was found that the maximum binder ratio with good viscosity and retention for desired geometry is 1:8.8, while the maximumBTcontent is 35.45 vol% (77.01 wt%) in order to achieve maximum density of 3.93 g/cm³(65.3%) for 3D printedBTceramic. Among different sintering temperatures, it was observed that the sinteredBTceramic at 1400°C had highest grain growth and tetragonality which affected high performing piezoelectric and dielectric properties, 200 pC/N and 4730 at 10³ Hz respectively. This paste extrusion 3D printing technique and simple synthesis method for ceramic suspensions are expected to enable rapid massive production, customization, design flexibility of the bulk piezoelectric and dielectric devices for next generation technology.

Facile conversion of pine cones into a high-capacity adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue and tetracycline from water.

An electric field‐assistedin situdispersion of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in polymer nanocomposites, fabricated through stereolithography three‐dimensional (3D) printing technique, was demonstrated. The introduction of MWCNTs increased the elasticity modulus of the polymer resin by 77%. Furthermore, the use of an electric field forin situMWCNT dispersion helped improving the average elongation at break of the samples with MWCNTs by 32%. The electric field also increased the ultimate tensile strength of the MWCNT reinforced nanocomposites by 42%. An increase of over 20% in the ultimate tensile strength ofin situdispersed MWCNT nanocomposites over the pure polymer material was observed. Finally, it was demonstrated that the magnitude and direction of the electrical conductivity of MWCNT nanocomposites can be engineered through the application ofin situelectric fields during 3D printing. An increase of 50% in the electrical conductivity was observed when MWCNTs were introduced, while the application of the electric field further improved the electrical conductivity by 26%. The presented results demonstrated the feasibility of tuning both electrical and mechanical properties of MWCNT reinforced polymer nanocomposites usingin situelectrical field‐assisted 3D printing. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci.2019,136, 47600.