Professor Marie-Pierre Laborie, and her research team at the Chair of Forest Biomaterials at the University of Freiburg, have developed a viscous biopaste for producing complex structures in 3D printing applications. The wood-based biodegradable synthetic has the potential for light weight construction applications. The team has published their results in the journals, Applied Bio Materials and Biomacromolecules.
"This is why we're researching into alternative possibilities for making better use of this raw material in future," says Laborie. As a result, the team started to reexamine a combination of materials which was already investigated in the 1980s by an American research team. This combination relied on liquid crystals based on cellulose, the main component of plant cell walls, to ensure not only the strength but also the good flow properties of the biopaste. The other component, lignin, is the glue of the microstructure in the process of creating the biosynthetic. Its orientation determines the flexibility or rigidity of the biosynthetic.
The team has utilized pure lignin which is produced in a pilot biorefinery at the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes (CBP) in Leuna. Additional research is needed on the biopaste in order to take commercially, but their recent advances show much promise.