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3-D Printing

Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in pictures: Reprint, reuse, recycle

by Brianna Barbu
April 16, 2025
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Credit: Ning Zheng/Science

These tiny 3D-printed objects, only about 15 mm across, have a big advantage when it comes to recyclability.

Light-cured 3D printing has many applications in manufacturing, but the technique typically relies on highly cross-linked thermoset polymers, which cannot be recycled through melting. Tao Xie, a professor of chemical and biochemical engineering at Zhejiang University, set out to make thermoset 3D printing polymers that are also recyclable. “We wanted to make polymers more environmentally friendly by . . . redesigning the polymer from the standpoint of a circular economy,” he says.

Credit: Ning Zheng/Science

Xie and his team took the naturally occurring aldehyde vanillin and thiol-based cross-linkers, which, with the help of a light-activated acid catalyst, react within seconds to form dithioacetal linkages. Heating the polymer above 80 °C releases bonds in the material—not all of them, but enough that it can be reprinted in a new shape.

Xie envisions that this type of material could be used to create molds for objects such as dental braces and metal parts. Having the ability to reprint the same material multiple times could reduce the environmental impact and the cost of manufacturing, he says. “We designed the polymer not only for the end use but also for its end of life.” The team published their work in Science last week (DOI: 10.1126/science.ads3880).

Credit: Tao Xie/Ning Zheng/Science

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