Vanillin-Based Resin for Additive Manufacturing

Stereolithography (SLA) is a well-established additive manufacturing (AM) technique that allows a resin to be photopolymerized into high resolution parts with rapid production times. Vanillin, a naturally occurring molecule as well as a derivative easily obtained from biomass, including lignin, can be used as a building block for vinyl ester resins (VERs) and AM-ready materials. A vanillin-based VER, prepared via a 100% atom efficient and solventless technique, was investigated for AM applications due to its low viscosity and demonstrated ability to photopolymerize. The resin was additively manufactured via SLA and the effect of postprocessing after printing was investigated. The extent of cure between the printed and postprocessed samples was found to have the highest effect on polymer properties, increasing extent of cure by approximately 23%. With postprocessing, the printed material was shown to have a glass transition temperature (T_g) of 153 °C and Young’s modulus of 4900 MPa, comparable to the same resin cured via traditional thermal techniques. This resin system has the potential to be used as a standalone high strength and high T_g material for SLA. Furthermore, the resin system also has potential as a formulation base for tunable SLA cure characteristics and final desired printed polymer properties while retaining significant biobased content.