A light-activated compound with none of the toxicity could make 3D printing safer — from dentistry to skin patches

The chemicals that harden resins under light — in everything from dental fillings to gel nails — include industry standards now being banned in some regions as reproductive toxins. A team at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, led by Professor Terry Steele, has built a replacement family, aryl diazirines, that is nontoxic to human cells, liquid and water-soluble, and even reduces the shrinkage that warps precision prints. The researchers, publishing in NPG Asia Materials, demonstrated watertight seals and 3D-printed channels made from a soybean-oil resin, plus a skin patch that stretches to more than three and a half times its length without tearing the skin beneath. 'Our goal was to develop a new activator that is not only safe and biocompatible but also improves on the performance of existing materials,' says Steele.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation