Chemical compatibility of fused filament fabrication-based 3-D printed components with solutions commonly used in semiconductor wet processing

Abstract

3-D printing shows great potential in laboratories for making customized labware and reaction vessels. In addition, affordable fused filament fabrication (FFF)-based 3-D printing has successfully produced high-quality and affordable scientific equipment, focusing on tools without strict chemical compatibility limitations. As the additives and colorants used in 3-D printing filaments are proprietary, their compatibility with common chemicals is unknown, which has prevented their widespread use in laboratory chemical processing. In this study, the compatibility of ten widely available FFF plastics with solvents, acids, bases and solutions used in the wet processing of semiconductor materials is explored. The results provide data on materials unavailable in the literature and the chemical properties of 3-D printable plastics that were, are in line with literature. Overall, many 3-D printable plastics are compatible with concentrated solutions. Polypropylene emerged as a promising 3-D printable material for semiconductor processing due to its tolerance of strongly oxidizing acids, such as nitric and sulfuric acids. In addition, 3-D printed custom tools were demonstrated for a range of wet processing applications. The results show that 3-D printed plastics are potential materials for bespoke chemically resistant labware at less than 10% of the cost of such purchased tools. However, further studies are required to ascertain if such materials are fully compatible with clean room processing.

Material extrusion‐based additive manufacturing of polypropylene: A review on how to improve dimensional inaccuracy and warpage

“…Other studies that revealed PP's potential as an engineering material with excellent stability against chemicals include the production of chemical process laboratories or chemical reaction vessels, for example, for the synthesis of bicyclic and tetracyclic heterocycles, the anti‐inflammatory drug ibuprofen, or multistep organic syntheses, the production of microfluidic devices for the medical and chemical industry, the fabrication of tailored reactor devices for mass spectrometry, or reactionware devices for continuous‐flow organic reactions . Additionally, various researchers recommended the use of 3D‐printed PP for various promising applications, such as for a chemically resistant laboratory equipment for the processing of semiconductors, for terahertz devices, or for a cheap and light weight alternative for the electrolysis of water …”

Mechanical properties of 3-D printed truss-like lattice biopolymer non-stochastic structures for sandwich panels with natural fibre composite skins

“…The mechanical properties of FFF/FDM PLA are well established [20][21][22][23], and their chemical resistance is also known [24]. PLA has also been successfully used in a number of polymer matrix composites [25][26][27][28][29][30]. These advances in sandwich structures and polymer/natural fibre composites open up the potential to overcome one of the primary limitations of FFF/FDM in load bearing applications: highly anisotropic properties having particularly low stiffens and strength in the direction of layer deposition (z-direction) [31][32][33][34].…”

Accounts in 3D‐Printed Electrochemical Sensors: Towards Monitoring of Environmental Pollutants

“…Although the most common thermoplastics used are PLA and ABS, alternative thermoplastics can be also furnished to take advantage of different material properties. [28] Carbon nanotubes/graphene/ polybutylene terephthalate, carbon nanofiber/graphite/polystyrene composite or carbon fiber/PLA are some additional examples of filaments employed to achieve electrically conductive printable composite electrodes. [29,30] Inks: The most common conducting inks used for electrochemical sensing devices manufacturing are based on metal nanoparticles, metallo-organic decomposition (MOD) and inorganic salts.…”