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Polymer engineering at the nexus of additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and responsible innovation
Summary
This perspective piece is not primarily a microplastics research paper; it broadly discusses the intersection of 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and sustainable polymer engineering, mentioning microplastics only peripherally in the context of material design challenges.
There is a paradigm shift occurring in polymer engineering brought about by developments in additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and sustainable material design (e.g., biopolymers, home-compostable polymers, bio-based fillers, and fibers).This advancement will radically change the conceptualization, development, and utilization of polymerbased materials.Nevertheless, the growing challenges related to people (community and social wellbeing), planet (environmental sustainability), and profit (economic viability and industrialization) must be addressed to ensure responsible and impactful innovation (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2025. 101517).These opportunities and obligations converge at a 'crosslink point' requiring both technological excellence and responsible stewardship of polymer engineering.This editorial presents a strategic perspective in which artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled additive manufacturing and responsible material design are used not only to improve technological performance but also to direct polymer innovation toward environmental, societal, and economic goals.Additive manufacturing technologies, including fused deposition modeling/fused filament fabrication, vat photo-polymerization, material jetting, powder bed fusion, and emerging hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing approaches, have had a major impact on the development of polymer engineering in that they provide researchers and engineers with the ability to manufacture parts with tunable design, high complexity, integrated special functionality, and im-
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