MORE | Fall 2022

Electrically Assisted Vat Photopolymerization of Bioinspired Hierarchical Structures with Hydrophobicity Enhancement

Air-retaining is attracting increasing attention for various applications. Salvinia exhibit stable and long-term air retention because of the unique combination of smooth hydrophilic patches on elastic eggbeater structures decorated with nanoscopic wax crystals. However, reproducing such hierarchical structures with controllable surface roughness is challenging for current fabrication approaches, which hinders the applications of such air-retaining surfaces in engineered products. In this project, an electrically assisted immersed surface accumulation 3D printing (ISA-3DP) process was developed to control the surface roughness of printed eggbeater structures with distribution of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for stable and long-term air retention.