Polybutadiene polyurethane acrylate photosensitive resin and its application in 3D printing

High-performance resins that can withstand temperature changes are required to expand the application potential of additive manufacturing (3D printing) in response to increasing demand from various fields. In this study, a novel 3D-printing polybutadiene polyurethane acrylate photosensitive resin named HTPBMA was prepared by mixing hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as the base material with other active diluent monomers and photoinitiators, including hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA). The resulting resins exhibited good rheological properties and rapid photocuring ability, depending on the type and proportion of diluent monomer. In particular, the tensile strength and elongation at break of the sample with a 65:35 HTPBMA:HPMA ratio at −25 °C were 32.9 MPa and 246.1%, respectively, being 2.13 and 1.58 times the values at room temperature, respectively. These results indicate that HTPBMA exhibits excellent low-temperature performance and physical properties. The enhancement mechanism can likely be attributed to introducing of a flexible carbon chain as well as increased cross-linking density (υ_e). These advantages suggest that the novel photosensitive resin designed and prepared in this study can be used for photocuring 3D printing and maintain excellent performance under extreme climatic conditions. Thus, the proposed HTPBMA has broad application prospects in aerospace and materials science, especially in shoe materials and tires.