Highly Efficient Consolidation of Mesoporous Silica Microstructures Using Photonic Curing

Photonic curing offers the advantage of strongly reducing the treatment time of materials, especially for industrial purposes. The current work highlights the benefits of photonic curing for mesoporous silica made by inkjet-printing. This study shows that appropriate curing treatment allows the preservation of the shape and porosity of mesoporous silica microstructures obtained by inkjet-printing. Moreover, for the first time, this study demonstrates that photonic curing is compatible with very fragile organic functional groups such as the azide functional groups that enable a versatile functionalization by the copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction. Compatibility of photonic curing is assessed for 3D-printed (inkjet-printed) silica with preservation of the printed shape and porosity structure, in addition to maintaining fragile chemical functions (azide, fluorine, polymer) intact. Relevant industrial applications of photonic curing involve post-process treatment of numerous samples at once, as for thin films and coatings, with significantly reducing the curing time (from days to milliseconds). image