Fabrication of 3D conjugated polymer structures via vat polymerization additive manufacturing

Conjugated polymers are a class of electroactive active material that have been studied for their potential in advanced sensing and actuation technologies. Conventional methods to fabricate conjugated polymer transducers produce devices with planar morphologies that limit fabricated devices to simplistic linear or bending modes of operation. To overcome this limitation, this work develops a photosensitive polypyrrole formulation and light-based additive manufacturing method capable of realizing three-dimensional conjugated polymer structures with micro-scale features. The electroactivity and strain sensing properties of the photosensitive polymer formulation are reported to show the early development of this method towards new sensing and actuation technologies.