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Monday, November 25, 2019

3D Printing 'Living' Materials

Implications here fascinating, more details at the link.

3D Printing Technique Produces 'Living' 4D Materials
UNSW Newsroom
By Caroline Tang
November 19, 2019

Researchers at Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and New Zealand's University of Auckland have combined three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) printing with a chemical process designed to create polymers to generate "living" resin. The researchers' controlled polymerization technique utilizes visible light to produce an environmentally friendly plastic or polymer. UNSW's Cerille Boyer said, "Our new method ... allows us to control the architecture of the polymers and tune the mechanical properties of the materials prepared by our process ... [and] also gives us access to 4D printing and allows the material to be transformed or functionalized." UNSW's Nathaniel Corrigan added that the system can finely control the 3D-printed material's molecules, so it can reversibly change shape and its chemical/physical properties under certain conditions. The researchers said the technique could be used to generate self-repairing and reusable objects, as well as biomedicines.    .... " 

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