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Additive manufacturing of micro-architected metals via hydrogel infusion

Author

Listed:
  • Max A. Saccone

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Rebecca A. Gallivan

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Kai Narita

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Daryl W. Yee

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Julia R. Greer

    (California Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) enables the production of high value and high performance components1 with applications from aerospace2 to biomedical3 fields. Layer-by-layer fabrication circumvents the geometric limitations of traditional metalworking techniques, allowing topologically optimized parts to be made rapidly and efficiently4,5. Existing AM techniques rely on thermally initiated melting or sintering for part shaping, a costly and material-limited process6–8. We report an AM technique that produces metals and alloys with microscale resolution via vat photopolymerization (VP). Three-dimensional-architected hydrogels are infused with metal precursors, then calcined and reduced to convert the hydrogel scaffolds into miniaturized metal replicas. This approach represents a paradigm shift in VP; the material is selected only after the structure is fabricated. Unlike existing VP strategies, which incorporate target materials or precursors into the photoresin during printing9–11, our method does not require reoptimization of resins and curing parameters for different materials, enabling quick iteration, compositional tuning and the ability to fabricate multimaterials. We demonstrate AM of metals with critical dimensions of approximately 40 µm that are challenging to fabricate by using conventional processes. Such hydrogel-derived metals have highly twinned microstructures and unusually high hardness, providing a pathway to create advanced metallic micromaterials.

Suggested Citation

  • Max A. Saccone & Rebecca A. Gallivan & Kai Narita & Daryl W. Yee & Julia R. Greer, 2022. "Additive manufacturing of micro-architected metals via hydrogel infusion," Nature, Nature, vol. 612(7941), pages 685-690, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:612:y:2022:i:7941:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05433-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05433-2
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Xianglong Lyu & Zhiqiang Zheng & Anitha Shiva & Mertcan Han & Cem Balda Dayan & Mingchao Zhang & Metin Sitti, 2024. "Capillary trapping of various nanomaterials on additively manufactured scaffolds for 3D micro-/nanofabrication," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Ying Hong & Shiyuan Liu & Xiaodan Yang & Wang Hong & Yao Shan & Biao Wang & Zhuomin Zhang & Xiaodong Yan & Weikang Lin & Xuemu Li & Zehua Peng & Xiaote Xu & Zhengbao Yang, 2024. "A bioinspired surface tension-driven route toward programmed cellular ceramics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Olga Guselnikova & Andrii Trelin & Yunqing Kang & Pavel Postnikov & Makoto Kobashi & Asuka Suzuki & Lok Kumar Shrestha & Joel Henzie & Yusuke Yamauchi, 2024. "Pretreatment-free SERS sensing of microplastics using a self-attention-based neural network on hierarchically porous Ag foams," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Sizhe Huang & Xinyue Liu & Shaoting Lin & Christopher Glynn & Kayla Felix & Atharva Sahasrabudhe & Collin Maley & Jingyi Xu & Weixuan Chen & Eunji Hong & Alfred J. Crosby & Qianbin Wang & Siyuan Rao, 2024. "Control of polymers’ amorphous-crystalline transition enables miniaturization and multifunctional integration for hydrogel bioelectronics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Bingyan Liu & Shirong Liu & Vasanthan Devaraj & Yuxiang Yin & Yueqi Zhang & Jingui Ai & Yaochen Han & Jicheng Feng, 2023. "Metal 3D nanoprinting with coupled fields," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.

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