Journal
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
Volume 31, Issue 33, Pages -Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202103288
Keywords
3D printing; hydrogels; injection molding; nanomaterials; sacrificial templating
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Funding
- Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine
- National Science Foundation through the UC Irvine Materials Research Science and Engineering Center [DMR-2011967]
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This article introduces a simple strategy to synthesize programmable hydrogel systems with tunable form and function in 3D using commercially available stereolithographic printer/resin. This approach is compatible with numerous in-situ gelling polymers and modifiers, allowing the fabrication of user-defined heterogeneous hydrogels.
3D hydrogels are powerful, multifunctional materials that are poised to become a building block in next-generation systems. Modern schemes to print complex 3D hydrogels are advancing rapidly; however, they possess several limitations including-but not limited to-polymer incompatibility or difficulty in imparting continuous heterogeneity in composition or function. Here, a simple strategy of synthesizing programmable hydrogel systems with tunable form and function in 3D is presented. This approach utilizes commercially available stereolithographic printer/resin to fabricate high-resolution molds followed by the programmed infiltration and gelation of hydrogel prepolymer. This mold is then sacrificed to yield 3D, multifunctional hydrogels exhibiting user-defined heterogeneity. The approach is compatible with numerous in-situ gelling polymers and modifiers ranging from interpenetrating networks of organic or synthetic polymers to functional materials possessing dense concentrations of nanomaterials or fluorescent markers. Accessible and versatile, this approach allows the fabrication of complex, multimaterial constructs with tunable 3D environmental responses inaccessible to well-established hydrogel 3D printing methods.
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