Polymer filaments comprising an aqueous-soluble imide polymer and use thereof as a sacrificial printing material in additive manufacturing

A polymer filament compatible with fused filament fabrication for preparing a removable support, comprising:

• at least one imide polymer having at least partial solubility in an aqueous fluid;
• wherein the at least one imide polymer comprises
• i) at least one polyesterimide formed from a diol and a diamine, the at least one polyesterimide formed from the diol and the diamine having a structure represented by
• wherein A is a hydrocarbyl group having a pair of carbonyl groups located in a five- or six-membered imide ring B3 and a carbonyl group bound in an ester linkage;
• wherein R is an alkylene, oxyalkylene, polyoxyalkylene, arylene, oxyarylene, polyoxyarylene, bis(phenylene)methane, oxy(bis(phenylene))methane, or polyoxy(bis(phenylene))methane group, or a crosslinkable variantthereof, and R′ is an alkylene, oxyalkylene, polyoxyalkylene, arylene, oxyarylene, polyoxyarylene, bis(phenylene)methane, oxy(bis(phenylene))methane, or polyoxy(bis(phenylene))methane group, or a crosslinkable variant thereof, provided that at least some occurrences of R and/or R′ are an oxyalkylene, polyoxyalkylene, oxyarylene, polyoxyarylene, oxy(bis(phenylene))methane, or polyoxy(bis(phenylene))methane group;
• and wherein z is a positive integer ranging from about 5 to about 100,000;
• ii) at least one polyesterimide formed from an amino alcohol, the at least one polyesterimide formed from the amino alcohol having a structure represented by
• wherein A is a hydrocarbyl group having a pair of carbonyl groups located within a five- or six-membered imide ring B3 and a carbonyl group bound in an ester linkage;
• wherein R is an alkylene, oxyalkylene, polyoxyalkylene, arylene, oxyarylene, polyoxyarylene, bis(phenylene)methane, oxy(bis(phenylene))methane, or polyoxy(bis(phenylene))methane group, or a crosslinkable variantthereof, provided that at least some occurrences of R are an oxyalkylene, polyoxyalkylene, oxyarylene, polyoxyarylene, oxy(bis(phenylene))methane, or polyoxy(bis(phenylene))methane group;
• and
• wherein z is a positive integer ranging from about 5 to about 100,000;
• or
• iii) at least one polyamideimide, the at least one polyamideimide having a structure represented by
• wherein A is a hydrocarbyl group having a pair of carbonyl groups located within a five- or six-membered imide ring B3 and a carbonyl group bound in an amide linkage;
• wherein R is an alkylene, oxyalkylene, polyoxyalkylene, arylene, oxyarylene, polyoxyarylene, bis(phenylene)methane, oxy(bis(phenylene))methane, or polyoxy(bis(phenylene))methane group, or a crosslinkable variantthereof, provided that at least some occurrences of R are an oxyalkylene, polyoxyalkylene, oxyarylene, polyoxyarylene, oxy(bis(phenylene))methane, or polyoxy(bis(phenylene))methane group;
• and
• wherein z is a positive integer ranging from about 5 to about 100,000;
• and
• wherein the polymer filament has a diameter of 0.5 mm to 5.0 mm.