Using Common 3D Printers for Hard Science

Here is a great example on how simple 3d printers are being used by scientists to make low cost specialist equipment in field of chemistry. 

Team of researchers form University of Helsinki used 3d printers to develop a chemical microreactor.

Gianmario Scotti, one of the researchers, published this video and the description:

In this video abstract we present a 3D printed polypropylene microreactor with an integrated stirring bar and nano-electrospray needle.

The nano-ESI needle is the ion source of our microreactor, and is used to couple it directly to a mass spectrometer. The microreactor is used to analyse chemical reactions with the mass spectrometer. The reaction is analysed as it happens.

We used polypropylene to 3D print the microreactor, because polypropylene is a very refractory polymer in the sense that it is neither affected by strong acids or alkaline solutions, nor by the great majority of solvents used in chemical synthesis.

This is the first 3D printed microreactor with an integrated ion source. It is also the first 3D printed microreactor with an integrated stir bar. These enable us to monitor the chemical reactions in real time.

Here are links to full research paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315119578_A_miniaturised_3D_printed_polypropylene_reactor_for_online_reaction_analysis_by_mass_spectrometry

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2017/re/c7re00015d#!divAbstract

Here is the printed reactor connected to a spectrometer and held with 3d printed jig

RamanPi DIY 3d printable Raman Spectrometer

RamanPi is open source project of Raman Spectrometer that can be made with many 3d printable parts. It is a low cost way to get a spectroscope for your laboratory or school and learn / teach about fundamental physics, chemistry and material sciences. It is powered by Raspberry Pi and most non-printable parts can be sourced off-the-shelf. The entire system is housed in standard PC ITX case.

Goals of the RamanPi project:

• Make it Open.. Everything.. All of it.. 
• Make it 3D Printable. 
• Make it modular and easy to upgrade. 
• Make it as easy to build as possible. 
• Make it easy to customize and open to improvement. 
• Use only commonly available off the shelf components whenever possible. 
• Have a remote interface that will allow it to be controlled and viewed from anywhere. 
• Compare the spectra to the online internet spectral databases. 
• Provide the capability to log data to remote databases, share with friends and colleagues.. 
• Not be just another open source spectrometer.. 
• Make it easy to use and intuitive. 
• Make it attractive with an elegant design.. 
• Make it useful and just cool to have!

Detailed construction guide and technical details can be found at:

http://hackaday.io/project/1279-ramanpi-raman-spectrometer

RamanPi GitHub:

https://github.com/flatCat1597/ramanSpectrometer

There are more DIY 3d printed spectrometer  projects:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/01/3d-printing-low-cost-open-source.html

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/09/publiclaboratory-mobile-3d-printed.html

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/09/tricorder-project-3d-printable.html

Videos from the RamanPi project:

How to make PLA plastics flexible with Carburetor Cleaner

Another interesting video by Jaidyn Edwars. He took some risks here for the science :-) Now, this is for information only, do not try this at home :-) I'm not sure what would be practical implementation of this method, but it is interesting nevertheless. This chemicals are toxic ... Also, what exactly is chemical composition of carburetor cleaner? are there different formulas?




From video description:

In this video I take a look at turning PLA 3D prints flexible by bathing them in Carburetor Cleaner (also known as carby cleaner).
The results were amazing, but, I don't feel they are worth the potential dangers. Carby Cleaner is very toxic stuff that is highly flammable, not good to breath in, not good to get on your skin and the smell lingers on for ages.
Definitely do not give the parts to kids as I don't reckon putting these parts in your mouth afterwards is a good idea at all.

Source:

https://www.youtube.com/user/chickenparmi?feature=watch

PublicLaboratory Mobile 3D printed Spectrometer

Version 3

Version 4



From thingiverse pages:

This spectrometer is a scientific tool that straps onto an Android or iOS phone, tablet, or any camera capable of focusing very close (macro-mode) and allows you to collect spectra. Why would you want one? You can use it to identify the elemental composition of things (light bulbs, olive oil, beer, etc) based on the colors of light they emit. You can even use it to monitor your home brewing progress (http://bit.ly/Xyor6B).

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:49934 (version 3)

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:125428 (version 4)



Here is video describing their idea and scenarios for using DIY spectrometer:




They had a successful Kickstarter campaign:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jywarren/public-lab-diy-spectrometry-kit


Spectral workbench is a place to archive, share, and interpret spectral data.

http://spectralworkbench.org/





Different model of 3d printed spectrometer:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/09/tricorder-project-3d-printable.html


You can also build 3d printable DIY Raman spectrometer:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/12/ramanpi-diy-3d-printable-raman.html

Tricorder project 3d printable spectometer

From the Tricorder project comes small 3d printable DYI science instrument.

From project website:

The prototype spectrograph is an experiment in low-cost design, and is almost entirely 3D printed using ABS plastic on an inexpensive desktop 3D printer (such as a Makerbot, though I used an ORD Bot Hadron). I have much more experience designing electronics than I do designing optical systems, and so the spectrograph is designed to be swappable/upgradable as newer designs come to pass (and I expect it to go throught a few iterations). This first spectrograph design has a 3D printed slit, and uses an inexpensive 1000-line/mm diffraction grating of the kind you can find on diffraction grating slides for classroom experiments. I read a paper a while ago on using deconvolution to post-process the data from slit spectrometers and basically sharpen the point-spread function (or PSF) to effectively increase the resolution of the instrument. Inspired by this, I decided to leave out the relay optics between slit-to-grating and from grating-to-detector to see if I could use post-processing to effectively sharpen up the overly broad PSF and have an even simpler and less expensive instrument.
The spectrograph design:

• contains a ~0.2mm printed slit

• 400-700nm (approx) spectral range

• Variable spectral resolution (~3.3nm @400nm, ~1.8nm @ 700nm), not accounting for the PSF

• 1000 line-per-mm diffraction grating (cut into a 4mm wide strip, and inserted into the spectrograph flush with the slit aperture)

• 3D printable on an inexpensive printer

• Very small size — about 1cm wide x 2cm long x 3cm tall.

With a spectrometer you’re often battling for SNR, and have to worry about stray light. Although these pictures don’t show it, the spectrograph has to be spray painted with a flat matte black paint to get any kind of performance.

http://www.tricorderproject.org/blog/?p=206

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:148270


Here is the PublicLab version of 3d printable spectrometer:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/09/publiclaboratory-mobile-3d-printed.html

Superhydrophobic 3d printed objects

Ok, this is just amazing. Water does not run out trough the openings!




From video description:

Scientists have developed a universal approach for printing materials with easy-to-modify surfaces to eliminate the need for multiple 3D printers. The versatile 3D printing technique mixes a 3D printing resin with a bromine-containing acrylate. The acrylate acts as an initiator to allow polymer brushes to grow on the printed surface. Printed 3D structures are then grafted into useful materials by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerisation.
To test their integrated initiator approach, the group fabricated lattices containing the polymer brushes and modified them to be either superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic. One superhydrophobic structure was in the form of a 2.5 cm diameter hollow mesh ball with 1 mm pores. When filled with water, the hydrophobic ball effectively held the fluid without leakage, even when shaken.
Taken from the following paper:
X Wang et al, Chem. Commun., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/c3cc45817b (rsc.li/1dYFhpS)

Video by: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChemistryWorldUK?feature=watch
Source:
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/09/3d-printing-ink-surface-modification

Dremelfuge

Created by cathalgarvey, Dremelfuge enables you to use 3d printed part in combination with Dremel to use it as high speed centrifuge. It is for standard microcentrifuge tubes and miniprep columns. It is licensed under Open Source Hardware license.





http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1483

Update (26.3.2014.):

Here is interview with the creator and more details on field use:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/03/3d-printable-dremelfuge-and-revolution.html