The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has developed a process to use 3D printers to quickly create chemically active catalytic objects for a variety of industries.
Current production of 3D catalysts typically involves various methods of depositing chemically active agents onto pre-printed structures. The Ames method allows users to create the shape of the structure and the catalyst design at the same time in a single step with off-the-shelf commercial 3D printers.
The structures are designed in a computer and built by shining a laser through a bath of customized resins that polymerize and harden layer by layer. Ames says the resulting 3D-printed product has catalytic properties intrinsic to the object and can be customized for different applications.
Located in Ames, Iowa, the national laboratory is operated by Iowa State University. The research team published its results in the journal ACS Catalysis.