Materials design for vat photopolymerization

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

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

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

• https://go.epfl.ch/MICRO-407