Fiber Reinforced Soft Composites with Tunable Extensibility, Stiffness, and Strength for Synthetic Bio-tissue Applications

我们已经开发出一种方法，将褶皱织物结构与弹性体复合材料与控制波长。3D打印用于创建具有受控形状的模具。织物在这些模具之间被压缩，然后织物的边缘被浸入熔化的蜡中。当蜡固化时，织物可以从模具中取出，并且织物保持施加的褶皱结构。然后将起皱的织物放入反应器中，注入预聚物溶液并暴露于UV光，以合成弹性体。最后，使用激光切割机将样品切割成所需形状。所提出的方法可以很好地设计可伸展的织物增强软材料。这些样品已经过机械表征，与常规软材料相比，所得到的性能是独特的。织物褶皱结构的引入在拉伸测试期间引入了新的转变点。初始应力-应变行为呈现线性弹性，与基体的应力-应变行为紧密匹配。发生过渡应变，其中复合材料迅速变硬，并且该区域中的模量接近织物的模量。这种转变发生时的应变由起皱的织物结构控制。我们已经证明，我们可以在5- 30%的应变范围内引起这种转变。这种简单的方法可以制造类似于天然生物材料的J形复合材料。

We have developed a method to incorporate wrinkled fabric structures into elastomer composites with controlled wavelength. 3D printing is used to create molds with controlled shape. Fabric is compressed between these molds, and then the edges of the fabric are immersed in melted wax. When the wax solidifies, the fabric can be removed from the mold, and the fabric maintains the imposed wrinkled structure. The wrinkled fabric is then placed into a reactor, and pre-polymer solution is injected and exposed to UV light, to synthesize the elastomer. Finally a laser cutter is used to cut the sample to the desired shape. The proposed method works well to design extensible fabric-reinforced soft materials.These samples have been mechanically characterized, and the resulting properties are unique compared to regular soft materials. The incorporation of a wrinkled structure of fabric introduced a new transition point during tensile testing. Initial stress-strain behavior appears linearly elastic, closely matching that of the matrix. A transition strain occurs, where the composite quickly becomes stiff, and the modulus in this region approaches that of the fabric. The strain at which this transition occurs is controlled by the wrinkled fabric structure. We have demonstrated that we can cause this transition to occur at strains ranging from 5-30%. This simple method allows for fabrication of J-shaped composites, similar to natural biomaterials.