Additive Manufacturing (AM) and Nanotechnology: Promises and Challenges

The narrow choice of materials used in Additive Manufacturing (AM) remains a key limitation to more advanced systems. Nanomaterials offer the potential to advance AM materials through modification of their fundamental material properties. In this paper, the authors provide a review of available published literature in which nanostructures are incorporated into AM printing media as an attempt to improve the properties of the final printed part. Specifically, we review the research in which metal, ceramic, and carbon nanomaterials have been incorporated into AM technologies such as stereolithography, laser sintering, fused filament fabrication, and three-dimensional printing. The purpose of this article is to summarize the research done to date, to highlight successes in the field, and to identify opportunities that the union of AM and nanotechnology could bring to science and technology.Mechanical Engineerin