Seamless Additive Manufacturing of Electrical Circuits Inside Polymers for Multifunctional 3D Components

聚合物的增材制造（AM）使用一层一层的材料沉积来创建复杂的三维（3D）物体。将增材制造与3D物体内部的金属电路打印相结合，可以大大提高3D零件的功能能力。虽然已经提出了许多这样的制造方法，但它们在电子性能、材料性能和材料成本之间进行了权衡。该项目将在打破这种权衡的新过程中创造新的知识。多功能3D部件在航空航天、机器人、医疗保健、国防和物联网应用领域的需求日益增长。因此，该项目带来的新制造能力将带来多重变革性的社会经济效益，并刺激增材制造行业的新一代产品创新。这项研究将结合几个学科，包括制造、热学、力学、光学和材料科学。该项目将为高中、初中和本科阶段的女性和未被充分代表的少数族裔创建多个推广测试平台。该团队将组织增材制造专题讨论会，并通过制作视频文章进行公众宣传。这种研究和教育的整合将鼓励工程和制造业在多个教育水平上的多样性。该项目的目标是在实现高导电性和低材料成本的同时，实现聚合物部件和部件内部导电金属电路的并行3D打印。这项研究将测试假设，即核壳纳米线的闪光融合和物理信息的工艺参数调整可以实现这些目标。耦合光学，热，传质和力学模型在多个长度尺度将创建和实验验证。这项研究将填补核心-壳纳米线中光学驱动融合动力学、聚合物打印过程中热机械驱动电路电导率变化以及工艺参数与性能之间关系的关键知识空白。其结果将成为系统实现性能-成本-材料窗口的科学基础，这是现有工艺无法实现的。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Additive Manufacturing (AM) of polymers uses layer-by-layer material deposition to create complex three-dimensional (3D) objects. Combining AM with printing of metallic electrical circuits inside the 3D object can drastically enhance the functional capabilities of 3D parts. While many such fabrication approaches have been suggested, they impose a tradeoff between electronic performance, material capability, and material cost. This project will create new knowledge on a novel process that breaks this tradeoff. Multifunctional 3D parts are in increasing demand for aerospace, robotics, healthcare, defense, and Internet-of-Things applications. Thus, the new manufacturing capabilities enabled by this project will have multiple transformative socio-economic benefits and stimulate a new generation of product innovations in the additive manufacturing industry. This research will combine several disciplines including manufacturing, thermal, mechanics, optics, and materials science. This project will create multiple outreach testbeds for engaging women and underrepresented minorities across high school, middle school, and undergraduate levels. This team will engage industry by organizing additive manufacturing symposia, and perform public outreach via the creation of video articles. This integration of research and education will encourage diversity in engineering and manufacturing across multiple educational levels.This project’s goal is to enable concurrent 3D printing of polymer parts and electrically conductive metal circuits inside the part while achieving high electrical conductivity and low material cost. This research will test the hypothesis that flash light fusion of core-shell nanowires and physics-informed tuning of the process parameters can achieve those goals. Coupled optical, thermal, mass transfer and mechanical models over multiple length scales will be created and experimentally validated. This research will fill key knowledge gaps on the dynamics of optically-driven fusion in core-shell nanowires, thermomechanically-driven changes in circuit conductivity during polymer printing, and the relationship between the process parameters and performance. The outcome will be a scientific foundation for systemic realization of a performance-cost-material window that is not achievable with existing processes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.