Warpage-Resistant, Under-Extrusion-Free, High-Surface-Quality Additive Manufacturing Process for Polyethylene-Based Composite Radiation Shielding Material

Duo Xu; Volodymyr Korolovych; You Lyu; Jacqueline Aslarus; Domingo R. Flores-Hernandez; Simo Pajovic; William T. Heller; Lembit Sihver; Svetlana V. Boriskina

doi:10.1021/acsapm.5c02057

Warpage-Resistant, Under-Extrusion-Free, High-Surface-Quality Additive Manufacturing Process for Polyethylene-Based Composite Radiation Shielding Material

Duo Xu
, Volodymyr Korolovych
, You Lyu
, Jacqueline Aslarus
, Domingo R. Flores-Hernandez
, Simo Pajovic
, William T. Heller
, Lembit Sihver
, Svetlana V. Boriskina

SANS & Spin Echo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Polyethylene (PE) is one of the best shielding materials for primary space radiation due to its high hydrogen content. For effective secondary neutron shielding, boron-rich fillers are incorporated to enhance performance. The semicrystalline nature and high thermal expansion coefficient of PE impede its adoption for in situ additive manufacture in space via the fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. We developed an optimized PE blend to mitigate the effects of under-extrusion and warpage. Guided by studies on extrusion and warpage, we developed an optimal set of printing parameters for the proposed PE blend. The optimum PE blend─both in its pure form and when doped with fillers─has been tested on different FDM printers. The printed structures exhibit high and uniform density, smooth surfaces, no warpage, and competitive mechanical properties. The FDM-printed plates demonstrate efficient shielding from thermal neutrons, predicted via modeling and confirmed experimentally using extended Q-range small-angle neutron scattering.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	12304-12320
Number of pages	17
Journal	ACS Applied Polymer Materials
Volume	7
Issue number	18
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.5c02057
State	Published - Sep 26 2025

Funding

This work has been supported by the Cosmic Shielding Corporation (CSC), Altanta, Georgia and the Department of the Air Force SBIR/STTR Program (Topic AFX23DTCSO1) (for the development of 3D printed composite shielding materials), the MIT-MISTI Czech Republic Seed Fund (for the fundamental studies on radiation shielding materials for terrestrial and space applications), and the MIT-Portugal Program (for the development of fibers for space applications). A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The beam time was allocated to EQ-SANS on proposal number IPTS-28797.1. D.X. acknowledges support from the MathWorks MechE Graduate Fellowship. S.P. acknowledges support from the NSF GRFP under Grant No. 2141064. D.R.F.H acknowledges the MIT-Monterrey Tec Collaborative Program in Nanotechnology.

Keywords

additive manufacturing
fused deposition modeling (FDM)
in-space manufacturing
polyethylene composites
radiation shielding

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10.1021/acsapm.5c02057

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Xu, D., Korolovych, V., Lyu, Y., Aslarus, J., Flores-Hernandez, D. R., Pajovic, S., Heller, W. T., Sihver, L., & Boriskina, S. V. (2025). Warpage-Resistant, Under-Extrusion-Free, High-Surface-Quality Additive Manufacturing Process for Polyethylene-Based Composite Radiation Shielding Material. ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 7(18), 12304-12320. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.5c02057

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abstract = "Polyethylene (PE) is one of the best shielding materials for primary space radiation due to its high hydrogen content. For effective secondary neutron shielding, boron-rich fillers are incorporated to enhance performance. The semicrystalline nature and high thermal expansion coefficient of PE impede its adoption for in situ additive manufacture in space via the fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. We developed an optimized PE blend to mitigate the effects of under-extrusion and warpage. Guided by studies on extrusion and warpage, we developed an optimal set of printing parameters for the proposed PE blend. The optimum PE blend─both in its pure form and when doped with fillers─has been tested on different FDM printers. The printed structures exhibit high and uniform density, smooth surfaces, no warpage, and competitive mechanical properties. The FDM-printed plates demonstrate efficient shielding from thermal neutrons, predicted via modeling and confirmed experimentally using extended Q-range small-angle neutron scattering.",

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Xu, D, Korolovych, V, Lyu, Y, Aslarus, J, Flores-Hernandez, DR, Pajovic, S, Heller, WT, Sihver, L & Boriskina, SV 2025, 'Warpage-Resistant, Under-Extrusion-Free, High-Surface-Quality Additive Manufacturing Process for Polyethylene-Based Composite Radiation Shielding Material', ACS Applied Polymer Materials, vol. 7, no. 18, pp. 12304-12320. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.5c02057

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AU - Xu, Duo

AU - Korolovych, Volodymyr

AU - Lyu, You

AU - Aslarus, Jacqueline

AU - Flores-Hernandez, Domingo R.

AU - Pajovic, Simo

AU - Heller, William T.

AU - Sihver, Lembit

AU - Boriskina, Svetlana V.

PY - 2025/9/26

Y1 - 2025/9/26

N2 - Polyethylene (PE) is one of the best shielding materials for primary space radiation due to its high hydrogen content. For effective secondary neutron shielding, boron-rich fillers are incorporated to enhance performance. The semicrystalline nature and high thermal expansion coefficient of PE impede its adoption for in situ additive manufacture in space via the fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. We developed an optimized PE blend to mitigate the effects of under-extrusion and warpage. Guided by studies on extrusion and warpage, we developed an optimal set of printing parameters for the proposed PE blend. The optimum PE blend─both in its pure form and when doped with fillers─has been tested on different FDM printers. The printed structures exhibit high and uniform density, smooth surfaces, no warpage, and competitive mechanical properties. The FDM-printed plates demonstrate efficient shielding from thermal neutrons, predicted via modeling and confirmed experimentally using extended Q-range small-angle neutron scattering.

AB - Polyethylene (PE) is one of the best shielding materials for primary space radiation due to its high hydrogen content. For effective secondary neutron shielding, boron-rich fillers are incorporated to enhance performance. The semicrystalline nature and high thermal expansion coefficient of PE impede its adoption for in situ additive manufacture in space via the fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. We developed an optimized PE blend to mitigate the effects of under-extrusion and warpage. Guided by studies on extrusion and warpage, we developed an optimal set of printing parameters for the proposed PE blend. The optimum PE blend─both in its pure form and when doped with fillers─has been tested on different FDM printers. The printed structures exhibit high and uniform density, smooth surfaces, no warpage, and competitive mechanical properties. The FDM-printed plates demonstrate efficient shielding from thermal neutrons, predicted via modeling and confirmed experimentally using extended Q-range small-angle neutron scattering.

KW - additive manufacturing

KW - fused deposition modeling (FDM)

KW - in-space manufacturing

KW - polyethylene composites

KW - radiation shielding

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ER -

Warpage-Resistant, Under-Extrusion-Free, High-Surface-Quality Additive Manufacturing Process for Polyethylene-Based Composite Radiation Shielding Material

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Keywords

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