研究人员Harbin Institute of Technology中国教育部发表了一篇论文，证明了在3D可打印墨水中使用石墨烯。
该团队在中国开发的材料表现出拉伸强度，使其与高强度混凝土的性能范围相同，并且在最高的导电陶瓷纳米复合材料中的电导率水平。
Finding the flow
At its base, the 3D printable ink in this study is a geopolymer – a material first defined in the 1950s with heat resistant and insulating properties, and an ability to encapsulate waste material in its structure. Examples of geopolymers include high temperature ceramics, and concrete made from recycled materials,such as the géobéton created by Russian construction company Renca.
As a raw material, the geopolymer alone does not have the rheological properties to flow through a nozzle for 3D printing. And so, in order to change its rheology (flowability), researchers investigate the use of graphene oxide as an additive.
混合物中的材料
The base geopolymer is made from a mixture of alkaline-source particles, found in soil or clay, and aluminosilicates particles, which is a mineral consisting of aluminium, silicon, and oxygen. During stirring, graphene oxide (GO) particles are injected into the mixture to create four samples of the material with different GO to geopolymer ratios.
What happens in the molecular structure of the geopolymer is that the GO particles act as a kind of lubricant in between the alkaline-source particles and aluminosilicates. The study assumes that interaction between the particles creates a thick layer of water film between them and, as such, GO/Geopolymer inks with higher GO concentration are more fluid than the others.
Printing the un-printable
3D printing this ink is performed using a modified commercially available UP Plus2 3D printer. After direct writing the ink into a design, the structures are cured in a controlled chamber for 5 days. They are then sintered at 1000℃ to turn the graphene oxide particles of the mixture into graphene, giving extra strength and conductive properties.
总而言之，作者指出
The unique properties of GO as we show in this study will further expand the range of applications where GO can be used. In particular, our strategy makes it possible to explore the employment of GO as rheology property modifier by encapsulation, and enable 3D printing materials that was un-printable previously, and thus offer opportunity to create new 3D printing materials
石墨烯以碳纳米管的形式在3D打印行业中广泛流行。屡获殊荣的3D打印机公司Markforgedis a leader in the field of carbon fiber 3D printers, and fiber-reinforced materials have become a hot topic for applications in automotive and aerospace components.
Researchers at MIT have also taken石墨烯3D组成的理论方法that, by nature, exists as a single-atom sheet.
3D printing strong and conductive geo-polymer nanocomposite structures modified by graphene oxide本文中讨论的本文在线发表在2017年6月的第117卷Carbon Journal中。它由Jing Zhong，Guo-Xiang Zhou，Pei-Gang HE，Zhi-hua Yang Yang和De-chang Jia合着。
特色图像：由Harbin理工学院和中国教育部开发的3D可打印石墨烯/地球聚合物墨水的3D可打印石墨烯的分子结构。图像Zhong，Zhou，He，Yang和Jia的图像。
