Light-based 3D printing of hydrogels with high-resolution channels
Light-based 3D printing of hydrogels with high-resolution channels
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DOI：
10.1088/2057-1976/aad667
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发表时间：
2019-02-01
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
Wilking, James N.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Benjamin, Aaron D.;Abbasi, Reha;Wilking, James N.
水凝胶是一种柔软的水基凝胶，广泛应用于个人护理产品、医药和生物医学工程。许多应用需要将水凝胶结构成复杂的三维（3D）形状。对于这些应用，基于光的3D打印方法提供了对材料结构的精细控制。然而，利用这些方法构建水凝胶是不发达的。特别是，打印含有内部空隙和通道的水凝胶物体的能力受到缺乏特性良好的配方的限制，这些配方会强烈衰减光，并且缺乏预测和减轻通道遮挡的理论框架。在这里，我们提出了一种结合实验和理论的方法，用于使用基于光的3D打印在水凝胶中创建具有任何方向的明确通道。这是通过结合光阻挡剂和优化打印条件来实现的，以确保层间粘附，同时最大限度地减少通道遮挡。为了证明这种方法的价值，我们打印了含有单个螺旋通道的水凝胶，其长度为厘米级，横截面为亚毫米级。虽然这里展示的通道相对简单，但同样的方法可以用于模拟更复杂的通道设计，例如，模拟生物体的复杂脉管系统。凝胶的低细胞毒性使该制剂成为生物应用的有希望的候选者。
Hydrogels are soft, water-based gels with widespread applications in personal care products, medicine and biomedical engineering. Many applications require structuring the hydrogel into complex three-dimensional (3D) shapes. For these applications, light-based 3D printing methods offer exquisite control over material structure. However, the use of these methods for structuring hydrogels is underdeveloped. In particular, the ability to print hydrogel objects containing internal voids and channels is limited by the lack of well-characterized formulations that strongly attenuate light and the lack of a theoretical framework for predicting and mitigating channel occlusion. Here we present a combined experimental and theoretical approach for creating well-defined channels with any orientation in hydrogels using light-based 3D printing. This is achieved by the incorporation of photoblocker and the optimization of print conditions to ensure layer-layer adhesion while minimizing channel occlusion. To demonstrate the value of this approach we print hydrogels containing individual spiral channels with centimeter-scale length and submillimeter-scale cross-section. While the channels presented here are relatively simple, this same approach could be used to achieve more complex channel designs mimicking, for example, the complex vasculature of living organisms. The low cytotoxicity of the gel makes the formulation a promising candidate for biological applications.