TY - JOUR
T1 - Direct Ink Writing of Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) with Tunable Mechanical Properties
AU - Jiang, Zhuoran
AU - Erol, Ozan
AU - Chatterjee, Devina
AU - Xu, Weinan
AU - Hibino, Narutoshi
AU - Romer, Lewis H.
AU - Kang, Sung Hoon
AU - Gracias, David H.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number R21HD090663, National Science Foundation (NSF) under Award Number DMR-1709349, and Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering Start-up Fund. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2019/8/7
Y1 - 2019/8/7
N2 - Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) is a unique polymer with highly desirable properties such as resistance to chemical degradation, biocompatibility, hydrophobicity, antistiction, and low friction coefficient. However, due to its high melt viscosity, it is not possible to three-dimensional (3D)-print PTFE structures using nozzle-based extrusion. Here, we report a new and versatile strategy for 3D-printing PTFE structures using direct ink writing (DIW). Our approach is based on a newly formulated PTFE nanoparticle ink and thermal treatment process. The ink was formulated by mixing an aqueous dispersion of surfactant-stabilized PTFE nanoparticles with a binding gum to optimize its shear-thinning properties required for DIW. We developed a multistage thermal treatment to fuse the PTFE nanoparticles, solidify the printed structures, and remove the additives. We have extensively characterized the rheological and mechanical properties and processing parameters of these structures using imaging, mechanical testing, and statistical design of experiments. Importantly, several of the mechanical and structural properties of the final-printed PTFE structures resemble that of compression-molded PTFE, and additionally, the mechanical properties are tunable. We anticipate that this versatile approach facilitates the production of 3D-printed PTFE components using DIW with significant potential applications in engineering and medicine.
AB - Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) is a unique polymer with highly desirable properties such as resistance to chemical degradation, biocompatibility, hydrophobicity, antistiction, and low friction coefficient. However, due to its high melt viscosity, it is not possible to three-dimensional (3D)-print PTFE structures using nozzle-based extrusion. Here, we report a new and versatile strategy for 3D-printing PTFE structures using direct ink writing (DIW). Our approach is based on a newly formulated PTFE nanoparticle ink and thermal treatment process. The ink was formulated by mixing an aqueous dispersion of surfactant-stabilized PTFE nanoparticles with a binding gum to optimize its shear-thinning properties required for DIW. We developed a multistage thermal treatment to fuse the PTFE nanoparticles, solidify the printed structures, and remove the additives. We have extensively characterized the rheological and mechanical properties and processing parameters of these structures using imaging, mechanical testing, and statistical design of experiments. Importantly, several of the mechanical and structural properties of the final-printed PTFE structures resemble that of compression-molded PTFE, and additionally, the mechanical properties are tunable. We anticipate that this versatile approach facilitates the production of 3D-printed PTFE components using DIW with significant potential applications in engineering and medicine.
KW - Teflon
KW - additive manufacturing
KW - composites
KW - fluoropolymer
KW - tunable mechanical properties
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U2 - 10.1021/acsami.9b07279
DO - 10.1021/acsami.9b07279
M3 - Article
C2 - 31291075
AN - SCOPUS:85070947751
VL - 11
SP - 28289
EP - 28295
JO - ACS applied materials & interfaces
JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces
SN - 1944-8244
IS - 31
ER -