AccScience Publishing / MSAM / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/MSAM026340084
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Development of a washable and antistatic waterborne polyurethane acrylate for dual photo-thermal curing vat photopolymerization three-dimensional printing

Ruiqi Liang1† Meng Wang1† Qiaoling Zhang1 Tongyi Wu1 Kaifeng Yuan1 Jian Xu1 Junhao Zhao1 Guoqiao Lai1* Qiu Chen1*
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1 College of Materials, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang , China
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
Received: 9 July 2026 | Revised: 28 August 2026 | Accepted: 31 August 2026 | Published online: 11 September 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Traditional photocurable three-dimensional (3D) printing materials rely on organic solvent cleaning, emit high volatile organic compounds, have insufficient mechanical properties, and easily generate static charge. Herein, we developed a water-washable, antistatic, photo-thermal dual-curable waterborne polyurethane acrylate for digital light processing‑based vat photopolymerization 3D printing. A waterborne polyurethane skeleton was constructed using polypropylene glycol, isocyanate, and 2,2-dimethylolpropionic acid, and a tertiary amine blocking agent with photosensitive groups was introduced to synthesize prepolymers containing thermally reversible urea bonds. An ionic antistatic agent was compounded to prepare a photosensitive resin, which was then molded via photo-thermal dual curing. The effects of isocyanate type and content, chain extender, diluent, and antistatic agent on material properties were systematically investigated. Results showed that the material exhibited optimal overall performance with 4,4’-dicyclohexylmethane diisocyanate as the isocyanate, isophorone diamine as the chain extender, N,N-dimethylacrylamide as the diluent, and 1.0 wt% octadecyltrimethylammonium chloride as the antistatic agent. After thermal curing at 110 °C for six hours, the material achieved a tensile strength of 26.8 MPa and an elongation at break of 110%, maintaining stable antistatic performance (surface resistivity < 1 × 1010 Ω) within 28 days. The material is fully water-washable with zero volatile organic compound emissions, integrating high strength-toughness, long-term antistatic property, and environmental friendliness. This work provides a new strategy for developing eco-friendly functional 3D printing materials.

Keywords
Waterborne polyurethane acrylate
Photo-thermal dual curing
Vat photopolymerization
Digital light processing
Water washability
Antistatic property
Mechanical properties
Funding
None.
Conflict of 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.
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Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing, Electronic ISSN: 2810-9635 Published by AccScience Publishing