{"id":61,"date":"2024-08-02T00:17:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T00:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3dprintingservices.com\/blog\/just-add-water-discover-the-salty-secret-behind-revolutionary-3d-printing-ink\/"},"modified":"2024-08-02T00:17:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T00:17:03","slug":"just-add-water-discover-the-salty-secret-behind-revolutionary-3d-printing-ink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3dprintingservices.com\/blog\/just-add-water-discover-the-salty-secret-behind-revolutionary-3d-printing-ink\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Add Water: Discover the Salty Secret Behind Revolutionary 3D Printing Ink"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>The 3D printing of certain items could soon get a lot faster, simpler and more eco-friendly. That&#8217;s because scientists have developed a new 3D printing ink which is easily extruded as a liquid, but then solidifies on contact with a saltwater solution.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>When most people think of 3D printing, they picture a commonly used technique known as fused deposition modeling (FDM). This method involves extruding a molten polymer out of a nozzle, building objects up in successively deposited layers as the polymer cools into a solid state.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Another technique, called direct ink writing (DIW), also involves extruding stuff out of a nozzle. In this case, however, that stuff is a gelatinous polymer &#8220;ink&#8221; which chemically transitions into a solid. As compared to FDM, DIW tends to be more cost-effective and energy-efficient, plus it allows for objects to be built out of a wider range of polymers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>One drawback of the technique, however, lies in the fact that toxic chemical catalysts and crosslinkers are often required to initiate and then boost the liquid-to-solid transition. Not only are these chemicals potentially harmful to people and the environment, they&#8217;re also added in a post-print step that adds to the duration and complexity of the production process.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>That&#8217;s where the new ink comes in.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Developed by Prof. Jinhye Bae and colleagues at the University of California San Diego, it incorporates a liquid polymer solution by the name of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) \u2013 or PNIPAM, for short. Functional materials, such as carbon nanotubes or graphene flakes, can be mixed into the liquid.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Because the PNIPAM is initially quite runny, it can be easily extruded out of a needle with very little force. When the ink is extruded into a calcium chloride saltwater solution, the salt ions immediately draw the water molecules out of the ink \u2013 it&#8217;s a phenomenon known as &#8220;salting-out.&#8221; The hydrophobic (water-repelling) polymer chains left in the ink then cluster together, causing the ink to instantly turn solid. Any added functional materials are locked in there, too.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Unlike conventional DIW printing, the PNIPAM method doesn&#8217;t require the use of any post-print chemicals, and it can be conducted at room temperature. As an added bonus, the printed solid objects can later be converted back into useable liquid PNIPAM if desired.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>The technology has already been utilized to print a circuit board that was used to power a light bulb.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>A paper on the research \u2013 which also involved scientists from Hanyang University in Korea \u2013 was recently published in the journal <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-48121-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nature Communications<\/a><\/i>. You can see the ink instantly forming into solid coils, in the video below.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/today.ucsd.edu\/story\/sustainable-and-reversible-3d-printing-method-uses-minimal-ingredients-and-steps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">UC San Diego<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 3D printing of certain items could soon get a lot faster, simpler and more eco-friendly. That&#8217;s because scientists have developed a new 3D printing ink which is easily extruded as a liquid, but then solidifies on contact with a saltwater solution. When most people think of 3D printing, they picture a commonly used technique [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":62,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Just Add Water: Discover the Salty Secret Behind Revolutionary 3D Printing Ink - 3D Printing Services Blog and Updates | 3D Print Prototypes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/3dprintingservices.com\/blog\/just-add-water-discover-the-salty-secret-behind-revolutionary-3d-printing-ink\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just Add Water: Discover the Salty Secret Behind Revolutionary 3D Printing Ink - 3D Printing Services Blog and Updates | 3D Print Prototypes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 3D printing of certain items could soon get a lot faster, simpler and more eco-friendly. 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