PolyChemPrint: A hardware and software framework for benchtop additive manufacturing of functional polymeric materials

Additive manufacturing (AM, 3D Printing) of hierarchical polymer structures for a targeted function represents a grand challenge in the field of polymer science and engineering. Because advanced functional materials often do not possess suitable mechanical and rheological properties for conventional fused deposition modeling, a key challenge that researchers face is in integrating custom deposition tool heads that enable printing of non-filamentary materials while preserving synchrony with the motion axes. In this article, we demonstrate a highly versatile hardware and software platform for melt and solution-phase benchtop AM and highlight patterning and post-deposition processing of a series of non-filament forming functional polymers, including PS-b-PLA bottlebrush block copolymers, semiconducting polymer DPP2T-TT, conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS [poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate)], and an SiO2-PE nanoporous polymer matrix composite. We present a free and open-source Python module, PolyChemPrint, which serves as a research-optimized AM control software. The cross-platform (Windows/Linux) software is designed to be extremely flexible in terms the hardware that can be connected and a detailed user manual and developer guide are provided for use by researchers without extensive computer programming experience. Finally, we provide extensive details of the hardware used for operation of low- and high-pressure pneumatic extruders and a laser module as rapidly interchangeable tool heads.