Recent study examines chemistry from 3D printed objects

3D printing technology has started to take hold as an enabling tool for scientific advancement. Born from the marriage of computer-aided design and additive manufacturing, 3D printing was originally intended to generate prototypes for inspection before their full industrial production. As this field has matured, its reach into other applications has expanded, accelerated by its ability to generate 3D objects with complex geometries. Chemists and chemical engineers have begun to take advantage of these capabilities in their own research.

Chemical reactivity of primary interest

The focus of an actual review is on 3D printed objects, the chemical reactivities of which are of primary interest. These types of objects have been designed and used in catalytic, mechanical, electronic, analytical and biological applications. Underlying this research are the efforts to add chemical functionality to standard printing materials, which are often inert.

The new review details the different ways in which chemical reactivity is endowed on printed objects, the types of chemical functionality that have been explored in the various printing materials and the reactions that are facilitated by the final printed object. Finally, the review discusses new avenues for the development and further sophistication of generating chemically active, 3D printed objects.

The study has been published in Nature Reviews Chemistry 3 (2019).

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