TY - JOUR A1 - Cheng, Christine A1 - Gupta, Malancha T1 - Surface functionalization of 3D-printed plastics via initiated chemical vapor deposition JF - Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology PY - 2017/// VL - 8 SP - 1629 EP - 1636 SN - 2190-4286 DO - 10.3762/bjnano.8.162 PB - Beilstein-Institut JA - Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. UR - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.8.162 KW - 3D printing KW - chemical vapor deposition KW - coatings KW - functional polymers KW - surface modification N2 - 3D printing is a useful fabrication technique because it offers design flexibility and rapid prototyping. The ability to functionalize the surfaces of 3D-printed objects allows the bulk properties, such as material strength or printability, to be chosen separately from surface properties, which is critical to expanding the breadth of 3D printing applications. In this work, we studied the ability of the initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) process to coat 3D-printed shapes composed of poly(lactic acid) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. The thermally insulating properties of 3D-printed plastics pose a challenge to the iCVD process due to large thermal gradients along the structures during processing. In this study, processing parameters such as the substrate temperature and the filament temperature were systematically varied to understand how these parameters affect the uniformity of the coatings along the 3D-printed objects. The 3D-printed objects were coated with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic polymers. Contact angle goniometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to characterize the functionalized surfaces. Our results can enable the use of iCVD to functionalize 3D-printed materials for a range of applications such as tissue scaffolds and microfluidics. ER -