Résumé
The advent of three-dimensional (3D) printing has transformed the field of manufacturing, offering unprecedented opportunities to create complex structures. The innovative nature of 3D printing also posed certain limitations on compatible material types, primarily due to its reliance on printable formulations that heavily incorporate polymers. The development of organic formulations has experienced a significant growth in recent years, while printing inorganic structures with low organic content remains a challenge. To address this constraint and expand the potential of 3D printing, we propose an alternative pathway using functionalized silica nanocages as the building blocks. This approach eliminates the need for organic binders and harness the potential of the particle inner porosity to print hierarchical structures using digital light processing (DLP).Silica nanocages of about 10 nm in size, functionalized with methacrylate ligands, are used for the direct 3D printing of mesoporous parts [1]. These porous nanoparticles, after being formulated as an ink with propylene carbonate and a photoinitiator, allow for the printing of structures containing up to 70 wt% inorganic matter. Using a custom built DLP printer, we successfully produced complex structures and monoliths with high resolution by combining the intrinsic nanoparticles mesoporosity with sophisticated macroporous networks such as gyroid lattices. This process can therefore allow for the fine tuning of the produced monolith while being easily scalable. In this contribution, we will highlight how the printed material properties (specific surface area, resolution, composition) can be modulated through nano-ink formulation (concentration, ligand density) and printing parameters (light dose, speed, top-down vs. bottom-up projection). This method results in low-organic content formulations that are compatible with commercial DLP 3D printers, enabling a broader range of structures to be created using readily available equipment.[1]. T. Aubert, J. Huang, K. Ma, T. Hanrath, U. Wiesner, Nat. Commun, 2020, 11, 4695