The research carried out in this thesis focusses on the development of novel functional and degradable materials for use in Microstereolithography (μSL), a type of additive manufacturing (AM) technology. Chapter 1 provides a background into the μSL technology with regards to key developments and the current state-of -the-art for the μSL apparatus itself in addition to providing an overview of the various types of commercially or non-commercially available materials currently developed for μSL. Chapter 2 describes the current state-of-the-art in terms of four-dimensional (4D) printing materials used within the μSL technology and subsequently focusses on expanding the limited scope of materials currently developed. The previously described poly(ethylene glycol) di-ortho-nitrobenzyl (PEG-oNB) ester molecule is successfully synthesised. Upon optimisation of a PEG-oNB containing resin, the material was found to be capable of solidifying to a defined two dimensional (2D) shape utilising one wavelength of light in the μSL apparatus and subsequently able to undergo photodegradation upon controlled exposure by a secondary wavelength of light thereby exemplifying a fourth dimension. In chapter 3, a library of previously described and novel malate based monomers with various functionality are synthesised and subsequently polymerised by step-growth polymerisation either in bulk or in solution to form short chain homopolymers. Copolymerisations carried out in bulk are shown to form polymers with the desired alkene bearing functionality required for cross-linking via radical thiol-ene coupling and the Poly(EtMa-co-BuMa) copolymer is successfully functionalised using dodecanethiol demonstrating its potential for use as a material within μSL. Chapter 4 describes the successful application of Poly(EtMa-co-BuMa), as synthesised in chapter 3, within a novel resin composition, containing dibutenyl succinate (DBS) as reactive diluent, that is capable of printing complex 3D architectures within the μSL process. The materials produced demonstrate exemplar degradation via the surface erosion mechanism and consequently exhibit near-zero order release kinetics upon encapsulation of a model small molecule. Furthermore, small alterations of the resin composition allowed for the rate of degradation and release to be tuned whilst applying multiple materials within the same device allows for controlled, temporal release. Chapter 5 concludes the most significant findings of Chapters 2-4 whilst Chapter 6 lists all the experimental protocols and methods used in this thesis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:742229 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Cant, Edward J. |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/101988/ |
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