SBIR Phase I:High-resolution Volumetric 3D Printing

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响将是开发一种在微尺度上构图聚合物的新战略。具体地说，该项目将开发一种高分辨率的体积3D打印机。这种打印机将生成高性能材料的对象，其特点是没有附带的支撑结构，并在打印过程中产生最少的人工制品，如分层。该项目将实现激光聚焦打印。由于这一过程大大降低了电力需求，因此可以更快地实现打印，并显著降低成本。这项技术将支持超高分辨率零件的快速成型或微型机电系统的创建，并将使其得到广泛应用。该项目将建造一台基于光子上转换纳米胶囊的体积3D打印机。这些纳米胶囊包含一个液核分子，经过三重态-三重态的湮灭，以二次幂关系将红光子转换为蓝光子。当与蓝光激活但对红光透明的适当的光聚合方案配对时，这些纳米胶囊可以专门用于在红色激光的焦点处驱动聚合。为上转换过程开发更大的反斯托克斯位移，以及上转换效率的提高将使快速打印成为可能。优化上转换波长和效率的工作将使用光致发光光谱来实现。多路复用光学方案的发展将进一步提高打印速度。将进行光束轮廓分析，以确定光整形方法的成功。纳米胶囊的功能化将使它们能够与广泛的3D打印树脂兼容。特别适合这种3D打印风格的树脂的开发将进一步将这项技术与现有的3D打印方法区分开来。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be the development of a new strategy for patterning polymers on the microscale. Specifically, this project will develop a high-resolution volumetric 3D printer. This printer will generate objects in high performance materials that feature no accompanying support structures, and minimal artifacts such as layering from the printing process. This project will achieve printing at the focal point of a laser beam. Because this process has substantially reduced power requirements, printing can be achieved much faster and a a significantly reduced cost. This technology will support rapid prototyping of ultrahigh resolution parts or creation of microelectromechanical systems and will enable widespread use. This project will build a volumetric 3D printer based on photon upconversion nanocapsules. These nanocapsules contain a liquid core of molecules that undergo triplet-triplet annihilation to convert red photons to blue photons with a quadratic power dependence. When paired with an appropriate photopolymerization scheme that is activated by blue light but transparent to red light, these nanocapsules can be used to drive polymerization exclusively at the focal point of a red laser. The development of larger anti-stokes shifts for the upconversion process, and the enhancement of the upconversion efficiency will allow for rapid printing. Work optimizing upconversion wavelengths and efficiencies will be achieved using photoluminescence spectroscopy. The development of multiplexed optical schemes will further enhance the printing speed. Beam profiling will be performed to determine the success of light-shaping approaches. Functionalization of the nanocapsules will allow them to be made compatible with a broad range of 3D printing resins. Development of resins especially suited for this style of 3D printing will further differentiate this technology from existing approaches to 3D printing.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.