Architecting ordered mesoporous materials via additive manufacturing

Abstract

Ordered mesoporous materials (OMMs) hold significant potential for a wide range of applications, but their scaled implementation has been largely constrained by challenges in assembling them into diverse form factors. Specifically, most methods reported to date can readily prepare OMMs with tunable pore textures as particles and films. Yet, there are very few approaches that enable the direct fabrication of OMMs into complex macroscopic structures. This work presents a robust manufacturing platform of using commodity thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) precursors to directly fabricate OMMs with on-demand control over their 3D structures enabled by additive manufacturing. The macroscopic dimensions, nanostructure, chemical composition, and morphology of samples were systematically investigated throughout the fabrication process. Our method is versatile and can be extended to a wide range of matrix chemistries, including polymers, carbons, and metal- or ceramic-containing nanocomposites. Overall, this study offers an innovative and cost-effective route to manufacture OMMs with control over both macroscopic shape and nanostructure, which are essential to further advance their applications.