Dynamic healable polyurethane for selective laser sintering

Abstract

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is one of the mainstream 3D printing technologies. A major challenge for SLS technology is the lack of novel polymer powder materials with improved Z-direction strength. Herein, a dynamic polymer was utilized to solve the challenge of SLS. To verify this concept, novel cross-linked poly(chlorophenol-urethane) (PCP-PU) and poly(bromophenol-urethane) (PBP-PU) containing dynamic halogenated bisphenol carbamate bond were examined. The obtained dynamic polyurethane exhibited excellent mechanical strength and self-healing efficiency, in addition to SLS processing ability. A small molecule model study confirmed the dynamic reversible characteristics of the chlorinated bisphenol carbamate, which dissociates into isocyanate and hydroxyl at 120 °C and reforms at 80 °C, as confirmed by NMR and FT-IR. SLS 3D printing using the self-made healable PBP-PU powders was successfully realized. The interface interaction between the adjacent SLS layers can be significantly improved via dynamic chemical bond linking instead of traditional physical entanglement, which leads to an improved Z-direction mechanical strength. The SLS processed PBP-PU sample exhibits an X-axis tensile strengths of ∼23 MPa and an elongation at break of ∼600 %. The Z-axis tensile strength is ∼88 % of X-axis’s, much higher than that of control TPU sample (∼56 %).