Yun Seong Kim's "Helix of Growth" - Image of Research 2025

Emerging from the earthy foundation, the twisting helix in this image represents our research journey from potential to realization. Fabricated via ‘growth printing’, a novel additive manufacturing process we developed, the helix mimics the principles of natural growth seen in plants and organisms – where chemical reactions interact with the environment to drive development. Utilizing chemistry that converts liquid resin to solid plastic, we ‘grew’ this helix into its shape using a motion stage. This sprouting helix showcases the potential of merging nature’s wisdom with scientific innovation, opening a doorway to a more sustainable future for manufacturing. For those interested in the technical aspects of materials science: the growth printing is driven by frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) chemistry, carefully coordinated with printer motion and heat transfer. The self-sustaining exothermic FROMP reaction cures a resin mixture of dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and polybutadiene (PBD) into a thermoset polymer at a curing at speed approximately 1 mm/s. This process does not require any continuous input of energy to the system to sustain the chemical reaction, making growth printing remarkably energy-efficient and faster compared to conventional additive manufacturing methods.