Zhengwei You Ph.D
professor
the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Fibers & Polymer Materials
the Department of Composite Materials, College of Material Science & Engineering, Donghua University
Email: zyou@dhu.edu.cn

Biography:
Dr Zhengwei You is a full professor at the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Fibers & Polymer Materials and the Chair of the Department of Composite Materials, College of Material Science & Engineering at Donghua University. He received his degrees of B.S. (2000) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ph.D. (2007) from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 2007 to 2012, he conducted his postdoctoral research on biomaterials at Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining Donghua University in 2013, he was an innovation manager in Bayer MaterialScience. His current research involves smart polymers, biomaterials, 3D printing, and flexible electronics.

Abstract:
A new general strategy to 3D print thermosets for diverse applications

Three-dimensional (3D) printing offers great power to customize sophisticated con-structs for a myriad of applications. However, many thermosets require a long term curing at harsh conditions, which are not compatible with rapid 3D printing processing. 3D printing these thermosets remains a challenge. Here we report a new strategy to directly 3D print various thermosets via readily available fused deposition modeling using sacrificial sodium chloride particles as the removable thicker for printing and reinforcer for curing exemplified by crosslinked polyester, polyurethane and epoxy resin. Specifically, the 3D constructs exhibited hierarchical and porous architectures, highly desired for many applications including regenerative medicine, sensors, actua-tors, catalyst supports, and energy absorbers. To demonstrate proof-of-concept, we 3D printed vapomechanical sensors and actuators featuring fast, large, robust, and gradi-ent responsiveness, and elastic and sustainable triboelectric nanogenerators for weara-ble electronics, in addition to biodegradable scaffolds used to promote vascularization and tissue ingrowth in vivo, and elastic myocardial patches to efficiently treat myo-cardial infarction. We expect this study will pave a new way to tailor the sophisticated 3D structures of thermosets and will be very useful for diverse applications.