Mollusk-Inspired 3D Printing of Polycarbonate via Fused Deposition Modelling

Mollusk shells, a natural bio composite with a hierarchical layered microarchitecture composed of mineral tablets and interleaved with organic biomaterials matrix has emerged as a promising alternative for the development of advanced functional and high-strength materials. It is widely acknowledged that the nature-mediated complex hierarchical intricacies in such design architecture are dimensionally a great challenge to imitate in artificial materials. However, the macroscopic illustration of architectonic principle possesses ability to render improved mechanical property in commercially available polymeric systems. In this context, the current study elucidates the macroscopic dimensional imitation of various mollusk architecture in polycarbonate via 3D printing by utilizing fused deposition modelling without utilizing interleaved biopolymer. The resulted architectures were subsequently compared for their impact, wear, and tensile characteristics and demonstrated that the exploration of complex laminar design strategy in polycarbonate elucidated ~48% augmentation in mechanical property compare to other hierarchical architecture like nacre, foliated, and complex cross laminar structure. It is envisioned that such design strategies in engineering polymers possess ability to open new avenue for further improving mechanical properties without altering their intrinsic characteristics.