(SD2014-159) 3D Fabrication of Piezoelectric Polymer Composite Materials

Background

Piezoelectric materials are key components in a range of devices including acoustic imaging, energy harvesting, and actuators and typically rely on brittle ceramic monoliths to perform their functions. To control the size and or shape of the piezoelectrics, it is common to use mechanical dicing or saws. However, this limits not only the size of the piezoelectric element but also the dimensionality. It is nearly impossible with current cutting techniques to shape brittle ceramics into higher order 3D structures, which could have a huge impact on compact sensor designs, tunable acoustic arrays, efficient energy scavengers, and diagnostic devices. There is an unmet need for simple approaches to fabricating 3D structures in piezoelectric polymers or multilayered architectures which would open up infinite possibilities in the design of more complicated device geometries.

Technology Description

Nanoengineers from UC San Diego have invented and patented piezoelectric nanoparticle–polymer composite materials that can be optically printed into three-dimensional (3D) microstructures using digital projection printing. Piezoelectric polymers were fabricated by incorporating barium titanate (BaTiO3, BTO) nanoparticles into photoliable polymer solutions such as polyethylene glycol diacrylate and exposing to digital optical masks that could be dynamically altered to generate user-defined 3D microstructures. This technology lays the groundwork for creating highly efficient piezoelectric polymer materials via nanointerfacial tuning. Details of this invention are published (Kim et al. 2014).

Applications

Applications range from loud speakers and acoustic imaging to energy harvesting and electrical actuators. The potential to print virtually any 3D piezoelectric shape, while maintaining a strong piezoelectric coefficient and biocompatible properties, this technology will find application in:
• biomimic materials (e.g., artificial skin, tympanic membrane)
• integrated micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (e.g. mechanical actuators), sensors (e.g. acoustic detection)
• bio-imaging (high resolution, compact ultrasonic imaging instruments)
• in vitro energy scavenging

Related Materials

• Kim K, W Zhu, X Qu, C Aaronson, S Chen, and DJ Sirbuly. 3D Optical Printing of Piezoelectric Nanoparticle-Polymer Composite Materials. ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn503268f Pub Date: July 21, 2014. - 07/21/2014

Patent Status

Other Information

UC San Diego is actively seeking companies interested in commercializing technology protected by an issued US patent: 1,171,281 (20 claims) 

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11171281B2/en?oq=US11171281B2