Prof. Tao XIE's Group

4D printing has emerged as a promising advanced manufacturing technology. One particular form of 4D printing is based on digital controlled 2D to 3D transformation. It forgoes the typical layer by layer fabrication process and is therefore advantageous in speed. However, the accessible shapes (consequently functions) are intrinsically limited. In addition, incorporating drastically different multi-materials is difficult.

The concept presented here is modular 4D printing via interfacial welding of digital light controllable modules formulated based on dynamic covalent polymer networks. The fabrication of each module only requires digital light exposure of a few minutes. Modules with distinctively different and tailorable properties can be printed and assembled together. This method allows access to geometrically complex and functionally diverse shape-shifting devices while maintaining the speed advantage of the 2D to 3D transformation. The versatility of our approach allows extension to 3D devices with multi-functionalities beyond shape-shifting.

      Online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259023852030014X