3D Printing Based Green Manufacturing for High‐Performance Self‐Lubricating Polymeric Composites

ABSTRACT Polymer‐based self‐lubricating composites have been widely applied in cutting‐edge technologies owing to their advantages of light weight, controllable cost, and diversified designability. Common molding approaches for polymeric self‐lubricating composites encompass hot compression molding for thermosetting polymers and injection molding for thermoplastic polymers. However, both processes are typically associated with high manufacturing costs and significant energy consumption. Here, we report a photosensitive resin for matrix materials that can attain high thermal resistance required for self‐lubricating composites via a photocuring process (with high glass transition temperature [ T g = 214.62°C], on par with typical self‐lubricating polymer matrix materials such as epoxy resin, phenolic resins, and PEEK). By integrating an in situ ionic liquid composite strategy, we successfully developed a homogeneous photosensitive ink system containing ionic liquid, and through a simple photocurable 3D printing process, achieved both molecular‐level in situ composites formation with ionic liquids and rapid fabrication of high‐performance self‐lubricating devices. The optimized composite material system exhibits an ultralow average friction coefficient as low as 0.05, with wear rate reduced by 95% compared to pure polymer materials. This manufacturing approach not only tackles high‐energy consumption, a key bottleneck in traditional manufacturing, but also overcomes the long‐standing issue of inadequate homogeneous dispersion of components in conventional solid–solid composite systems, thereby establishing a novel green manufacturing paradigm for advancing polymer self‐lubricating composites.