Photoactive Hybrid Materials with Fractal Designs Produced via 3D Printing and Plasma Grafting Technologies

The present paper partly aims at exploring the potential of fractal geometry for concrete applications in the field of materials science. It is more specifically a study about the conception of hybrid polymer-based materials with photocatalytic activity. The concept behind this work is to investigate the use of polymer fractal structures manufactured by 3D-printing technology, as a highly ordered substrate with an important surface area to immobilize catalyst nanoparticles, by means of plasma grafting technology. Two types of fractal units, fractal pyramids (fracmids) and fractal cones (fracones), have been described and the former has been extensively characterized on a geometrical aspect. Various complex superstructures have also been described using fractal units as building blocks. 3D structures based on the aforementioned theoretical models have been designed using computer-aided design (CAD). On the basis of CAD models, several structures have been 3D-printed with PLA using fused deposition modeling. PLA substrates have been successfully coated with nanoparticles of ZnO using a combination of core-shell synthesis and plasma grafting. Finally, the photocatalytic activity of a hybrid material has been assessed with a positive outcome, showing the relevance of the concept developed in this study.