Materials design for vat photopolymerization
MICRO-407 / 3 credits
Teacher: Yee Wei Liang Daryl
Language: English
Withdrawal: It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.
Summary
This course is focused on designing materials for vat photopolymerization 3D printing technologies. The course combines theoretical description with practical lab work where students will design, formulate, and print their own materials.
Content
Important course information: This course will be a mixture of lectures, exercises, and practical lab sessions. The first half of the semester will focus more heavily on lectures/exercises (1 hour of lab session per week on average, with the other 2 hours dedicated to lectures and exercises), while the second half of the semester will focus more on the lab sessions (2 hour of lab sessions on average, 1 hour of lectures/exercise).
The practical lab sessions will involve working in a chemistry lab. All registered students must participate in the lab practical sessions.
The exercise sessions will range from literature discussion to solving problem sets.
For Fall 2026, only a maximum of 15 students can be registered in the course.
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The course will cover the following:
1) Introduction to vat photopolymerization (VP) additive manufacturing technologies
2) Fundamentals of photopolymerization as applied to VP
3) Resin design for polymer printing
4) Chemical safety in the lab
5) Practical considerations for polymer printing and processing
6) Structure-processing-property relationships in 3D printed polymer parts
Keywords
- Polymers
- Vat photopolymerization
- 3D printing
- Photopolymerization
- Mechanical properties
- Processing
- Synthesis
Learning Prerequisites
Required courses
SMT: MSE-214 and MICRO-413
SMX: MSE-360
Important concepts to start the course
- Understand the basics of free-radical polymerization
- Understand the differences between a thermoplastic and thermoset
- Understand how the glass transition temperature impacts polymer properties
- Understand that a polymer can have a variety of network structures
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Explain the working principles of each type of VP technology
- Develop photoresins that can achieve a particular polymer property
- Design their own resins and analyse the properties of the printed polymer
- Analyze the mechanical properties of polymers
- Manipulate VP printers
- Analyze relevant polymer printing literature
Transversal skills
- Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
- Collect data.
- Make an oral presentation.
- Continue to work through difficulties or initial failure to find optimal solutions.
- Take responsibility for health and safety of self and others in a working context.
- Identify the different roles that are involved in well-functioning teams and assume different roles, including leadership roles.
- Negotiate effectively within the group.
- Demonstrate a capacity for creativity.
Teaching methods
Classroom lectures, exercises, practical lab sessions, and project work.
The classroom lectures will cover the theoretical parts of the course, including safety aspects of working in a lab.
The exercises will cover a range of activities, including discussion on selected literature, group presentations, and problem sets.
The lab sessions will include resin formulation, printing, and material testing.
There will be a 7 week long project that will require the students to obtain printed polymers with defined properties.
Expected student activities
Short assignments
Hands-on lab project, in groups
Presentation of articles from the scientific literaure
Assessment methods
- Group project; presentation within the last 2 weeks of the semester (75% of the grade)
- Individual oral examination between week 6 and 7 of the semester (25% of the grade)
Supervision
| Office hours | No |
| Assistant.e.s | Yes |
| Forum | No |
| Others | Prof. Yee will be present during the execise and lab sessions to answer questions. |
Resources
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
No
Bibliography
G. Odian, Principles of polymerization, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2024
Kitos Vasconcelos, Ana Paula, et al. "Light-based 3D printing of polymeric materials." Annual Review of Materials Research 55.1 (2025): 491-521.
Ligon, Samuel Clark, et al. "Polymers for 3D printing and customized additive manufacturing." Chemical reviews 117.15 (2017): 10212-10290.
Notes/Handbook
Slides and notes of the course will be available on Moodle.
Moodle Link
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Number of places: 15
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Materials design for vat photopolymerization
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- TP: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Number of places: 15
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Materials design for vat photopolymerization
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- TP: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Number of places: 15
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Materials design for vat photopolymerization
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- TP: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Number of places: 15
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Materials design for vat photopolymerization
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- TP: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional