Historical Perspective
3D and 4D printing: From innovation to evolution

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2021.102482Get rights and content

Highlights

  • 3D and 4D printing are new technologies that opening new windows to the future.

  • 4D printing is actually combination of 3D printing and time.

  • 3D and 4D printing are successful in producing difficult shapes.

  • 3D and 4D printing are applicable from small to large-scale industries.

Abstract

The world and science are moving forward nonstop. Every day, we see novel technologies that are coming to improve life quality. One of them is 3D printing or additive manufacturing. This technology covers the shortage of the current manufacturing technologies, and it has been enhanced by introducing smart materials like smart polymers as feed. The following product can adapt to circumstance conditions such as temperature changes, compression alteration, etc. These responses resulted in an advanced 3D printing technology called 4D printing. 3D and 4D printing technologies found their applications in all areas and industry sizes, from home-scale to large-scale industries. Regardless of all advantages of these technologies, there are still some shortages like low printing speed. But this never stops their progression and promotion. In this review, we aimed to cover general knowledge about 3D and 4D printing and their recent applications in various fields.

Section snippets

Background and introduction

“3D printing is actually 2D printing over and over again”. This sentence is the best description of 3D printing technology given by Prof. J. DeSimone during the TED talk in 2017. 3D printing or the term “stereolithography” was first reported by Chuck Hull (Charles W. Hull) in 1983, although the patent was published in 1984 [1]. It has found various and numerous applications from home-scale industries like creating clothes1

Methods, technologies, and materials

There are different technologies in the 3D printers [7], and Table 1 shows the difference among the processes.

Generally, shape-memory materials, metamaterials, self-healing materials, polymers, metals, and nanocomposites can be used as feed in 3D and 4D printing processes [[9], [10], [11], [12]]. Among them, those with low strength and stiffness are suitable for 4D printing [13,14]. The materials in 4D printing must respond in real-time, respond in more than one environmental state, be

Applications

As seen in Fig. 2, based on the Scopus database, the number of documents regarding 3D and 4D printing increases. It shows that these technologies are becoming popular and more convenient.

Hence, 3D and 4D printing technologies are spreading worldwide and finding ways to replace traditional material production. The printed materials from 3D and 4D printing technologies are capable of being used in various fields, such as producing artificial organs [24], biomedical applications [25], microwave

Conclusions

In the review, we attempted to introduce 3D and 4D printing as new technologies. In most cases, they have a lower price, smaller size, and lighter weight than the other current technologies. As seen, they found their way into whether small or large industries, from manufacturing clothes in the home to producing small rockets in aerospace. They could cover some manufacturing shortages, such as inconvenience in creating complicated shapes. Regardless of broad applications of 3D and 4D printing,

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

In the end, we kindly appreciate the support we received from the Research Affairs Division of the Isfahan University of Technology (Isfahan, Iran), Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council, and National Elite Foundation (Tehran, Iran). Also, the help of Dr. V. Behranvand, Ms. E. Azadi, and Ms. F. Sirous is appreciated.

Shadpour Mallakpour, an organic polymer chemist, graduated from the chemistry department, University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, Florida, the USA, in 1984. He spent two years as a post-doc at UF. He has joined the chemistry department, Isfahan University of Technology (IUT), Iran, in 1986. He held several positions, such as the chemistry department chairman and deputy of research, department of chemistry at IUT. From 1994 to 1995 he worked as a visiting professor at the University of Mainz,

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    Shadpour Mallakpour, an organic polymer chemist, graduated from the chemistry department, University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, Florida, the USA, in 1984. He spent two years as a post-doc at UF. He has joined the chemistry department, Isfahan University of Technology (IUT), Iran, in 1986. He held several positions, such as the chemistry department chairman and deputy of research, department of chemistry at IUT. From 1994 to 1995 he worked as a visiting professor at the University of Mainz, Germany, and from 2003 to 2004 as a visiting professor, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA. He has published more than 880 journal papers and more than 400 conference papers and has more than 30 items of awards. The most important award to him was given for the selection of the first laureate on fundamental research at the 21st Khwarizmi International Award in 2008. He has been listed as the Top 1% Scientists in Chemistry in ISI Essential Science Indicators Since 2003. He also was listed as the Top 2% Scientists in the polymer in 2020. He was selected as an academic guest of the 59th Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry, 2009, at Lindau, Germany. He presented many lectures as an invited or keynoted speaker in different national and international conferences or universities. He was a member of organizing and scientific committees for many national and international conferences. He was also the chairperson of many national and international meetings. He has focused on the preparation and characterization of polymer-based nanocomposites to be used as bioactive materials and adsorbents, and photocatalyst for remediation technology in recent years.

    Farbod Tabesh, Ph.D., gained his B.Sc. in Applied Chemistry in 2012 from Karaj Islamic Azad University (KIAU), Karaj, I. R. Iran. In 2014 he got his M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry under Dr. G. Bagheri Marandi's supervision from KIAU. His Ph.D. in Organic-Polymer Chemistry was given to him in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. S. Mallakpour. His research areas are natural hydrogel bionanocomposites, natural polymers, synthetic polymers, adsorbents, water remediation, nanomaterials, nanotechnology, green synthesis of nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, and green chemistry.

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor, Academic Advisor, and Director of Chemistry & EVSc Labs in the Department of Chemistry & Environmental Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Newark, New Jersey, USA. His research is focused on the applications of Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials, Environmental Management, Analytical Chemistry, and Various Industries. Dr. Hussain is the author of numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals and a prolific author and editor of several scientific monographs and handbooks in his research areas published with Elsevier, Royal Society of Chemistry, John Wiley & sons, CRC, Springer, etc.

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