TY - JOUR A1 - Chi, Jinchun A1 - Zocca, Andrea A1 - Agea Blanco, Boris A1 - Melcher, J. A1 - Sparenberg, M. A1 - Günster, Jens T1 - 3D Printing of Self-Organizing Structural Elements for Advanced Functional Structures N2 - A shape evolution approach based on the thermally activated self-organization of 3D printed parts into minimal surface area structures is presented. With this strategy, the present communication opposes currently established additive manufacturing strategies aiming to stipulate each individual volumetric element (voxel) of a part. Instead, a 3D structure is roughly defined in a 3D printing process, with all its advantages, and an externally triggered self-organization allows the formation of structural elements with a definition greatly exceeding the volumetric resolution of the printing process. For enabling the self-organization of printed objects by viscous flow of material, functionally graded structures are printed as rigid frame and melting filler. This approach uniquely combines the freedom in design, provided by 3D printing, with the mathematical formulation of minimal surface structures and the knowledge of the physical potentials governing self-organization, to overcome the paradigm which strictly orrelates the geometrical definition of 3D printed parts to the volumetric resolution of the printing process. Moreover, a transient liquid phase allows local programming of functionalities, such as the alignment of functional particles, by means of electric or magnetic fields. KW - Additive Manufacturing KW - Self-Assembly KW - 3D-Printing KW - Polymeric Materials PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.201800003 SN - 2365-709X VL - 3 IS - 5 SP - 1800003-1 EP - 1800003-7 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-45714 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -