3D Printing of Magnetoresponsive Polymeric Materials with Tunable Mechanical and Magnetic Properties by Digital Light Processing

Digital light processing is used for printing magnetoresponsive polymeric materials with tunable mechanical and magnetic properties. Mechanical properties are tailored, from stiff to soft, by combining urethane-acrylate resins with butyl acrylate as the reactive diluent. The magnetic response of the printed samples is tuned by changing the Fe3O4 nanoparticle loading up to 6 wt%. Following this strategy, magnetoresponsive active components are fabricated with programmable complex functions using external magnetic fields. Different objects are printed exhibiting varying stiffness and magnetic responses, probing different kinds of movements, such as rolling, translation, stretching, shape-shifting, and folding/unfolding.