3D Fabrication of Piezoelectric Polymer Composite Materials
Applications range from loud speakers and acoustic imaging to energy harvesting and electrical actuators. The potential to print virtually any 3D piezoelectric shape, while maintaining a strong piezoelectric coefficient and biocompatible properties, this technology will find application in:• biomimic materials (e.g., artificial skin, tympanic membrane)• integrated micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (e.g. mechanical actuators), sensors (e.g. acoustic detection)• bio-imaging (high resolution, compact ultrasonic imaging instruments)• in vitro energy scavenging
Nanoengineers from UC San Diego have developed piezoelectric nanoparticle–polymer composite materials that can be optically printed into three-dimensional (3D) microstructures using digital projection printing. Piezoelectric polymers were fabricated by incorporating barium titanate (BaTiO3, BTO) nanoparticles into photoliable polymer solutions such as polyethylene glycol diacrylate and exposing to digital optical masks that could be dynamically altered to generate user-defined 3D microstructures. This technology lays the groundwork for creating highly efficient piezoelectric polymer materials via nanointerfacial tuning. Details of this invention are published (Kim et al. 2014).
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Related Materials Tech ID/UC Case 24418/2014-159-0 Related Cases 2014-159-0
USA
