In recent years there is a growing need for printable functional 3 dimensional structures such as conductive bridges. 3D printing as an additive fabrication process which is implemented in a variety of fields such as modeling and scaffolds for medical applications. The 3D structures are formed with different polymers or polymeric precursors, while currently the main required function is the structure itself.
The goal of our research is to fabricate 3D porous structures which contain functional materials within the pores. These structures are fabricated by printing a newly developed emulsion ink composed of a curable acrylic monomers mixture as the "oil" droplets in water phase. The printing is performed by the digital light process (DLP) method, in which the structure is formed by local polymerization of monomers. At first stage, the droplets are cured by UV light, and at the second stage, the water phase evaporates away and leaves voids. Currently we focus on impregnating these structures with silver nanoparticles that after a simple sintering process, can connect to form a conductive, continues silver matrix within a solid polymer.
Ido.cooperstein@mail.huji.ac.il
