3D Printing of Bio‐Based Elastomers With High Toughness

ABSTRACT

The rapid development of 3D printing, combined with the urgent need to address fossil resource depletion and environmental pollution, has spurred strong interest in utilizing bio‐based feedstocks for additive manufacturing of polymers. Despite extensive efforts, a key bottleneck remains in how to achieve superior mechanical properties at a high bio‐content. Fundamentally, the difficulty lies in how to construct the appropriate aggregation states key to the mechanical properties under the constraints of bio‐based 3D printing. Here, we report our successful attempt in this direction. At a high bio‐content of 76%, our printed elastomer exhibits tensile strength (37.1 MPa) and toughness (156.9 MJ m ⁻³ ) far exceeding any known 3D‐printed bio‐based elastomers and even commercial petroleum‐based elastomers. The material design is further extended to produce 3D foams with a tensile strength of 1.2 MPa at a low density of 0.26 g cm ⁻³ . This ability to 3D print mechanically robust architectured foams opens up new structure design opportunities to maximize material utilization efficiency. Our findings underscore the potential for sustainable manufacturing of high‐performance 3D printing.