UC San Diego

3D printing presents the ability of rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing. Techniques such as stereolithography (SLA) and fused deposition molding (FDM) have been developed and utilized since the inception of 3D printing. In such techniques, polymers represent the most commonly used material for 3D printing due to material properties such as thermo plasticity as well as its ability to be polymerized

from monomers. Polymer nanocomposites are polymers with nanomaterials composited into the polymer matrix. Nanocomposites possess superior properties compared to its pure polymer form due to the nanomaterials imparting its unique qualities onto the nanocomposite. Combining the capabilities of 3D printing and the properties of nanocomposites could potentially unlock countless possible applications.

In this thesis, we present the ability to 3D print functional nanocomposites using two printing systems: “micro continuous optical printing” (µCOP), an in-house developed system that utilizies a digital micromirror device (DMD) in a SLA based process for rapid optical 3D printing, and two photon polymerization (TPP) which involves a femtosecond laser to fabricate 3D structures with ultrahigh precision and micron-nano scale resolutions. Chapter 2 of this thesis showcases the 3D printing ability of the µCOP system. Microcones and size tunable microwells were printed in a parallel manner with high speeds and resolutions. Chapter 3.1 of this thesis uses the µCOP system to 3D print artificial microfishes with encapsulated platinum (Pt) nanoparticles and magnetic (Fe3O4) nanoparticles for locomotive and magnetically guided purposes. The speeds of the microfishes can be tuned through the geometrical design of the microfish as well as through the concentration of the encapsulated Pt particles. Additional detoxifying nanoparticles (PDA) were encapsulated in the microfishes and displayed detoxification abilities. Chapter 3.2 of this thesis is a work in progress that uses the TPP system to 3D print highly defined piezoelectric nanocomposites using 20nm BaTiO3 (BTO) nanoparticles and a bisphenol-A (BPA) free photopolymerizable polycarbonate (PC). The printed structures display high uniformity across all printed areas with resolutions down to 1-2µm. The BTO nanoparticles in the nanocomposites do not interfere with the printing capabilities of the TPP system allowing the system to retain its high precision capabilities