The fabrication of three‐dimensional (3D) scaffolds is indispensable to tissue engineering and 3D printing is emerging as an important approach towards this. Hydrogels are often used as inks in extrusion‐based 3D printing, including with encapsulated cells; however, numerous challenging requirements exist, including appropriate viscosity, the ability to stabilize after extrusion, and cytocompatibility. Here, we present a shear‐thinning and self‐healing hydrogel crosslinked through dynamic covalent chemistry for 3D bioprinting. Specifically, hyaluronic acid was modified with either hydrazide or aldehyde groups and mixed to form hydrogels containing a dynamic hydrazone bond. Due to their shear‐thinning and self‐healing properties, the hydrogels could be extruded for 3D printing of structures with high shape fidelity, stability to relaxation, and cytocompatibility with encapsulated fibroblasts (>80% viability). Forces for extrusion and filament sizes were dependent on parameters such as material concentration and needle gauge. To increase scaffold functionality, a second photocrosslinkable interpenetrating network was included that was used for orthogonal photostiffening and photopatterning through a thiol‐ene reaction. Photostiffening increased the scaffold's modulus (∼300%) while significantly decreasing erosion (∼70%), whereas photopatterning allowed for spatial modification of scaffolds with dyes. Overall, this work introduces a simple approach to both fabricate and modify 3D printed scaffolds. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 865–875, 2018.
Fabricating 3D Structures by Combining 2D Printing and Relaxation of Strain
This paper describes the fabrication of elastomeric three‐dimensional (3D) structures starting from two‐dimensional (2D) sheets using a combination of direct‐ink printing and relaxation of strain. These structures are fabricated in a two‐step process: first, elastomeric inks are deposited as 2D structures on a stretched elastomeric sheet, and second, after curing of the elastomeric inks, relaxation of strain in the 2D sheet causes it to deform into a 3D shape. To predict bending of elastomeric objects fabricated with this technique, a simple mechanical model is developed. The strategy of using initially 2D materials to fabricate 3D structures offers four new features that complement digital fabrication techniques. (i) It provides a simple route to create shapes with complex curves, suspended features, and internal cavities. (ii) It is a faster method of fabricating some types of shapes than “conventional” 3D printing, because the features are printed in 2D. (iii) It forms surfaces that can be both smoother, and structured in a way that is not compatible with layer‐by‐layer processing. (iv) It forms structures that can be deformed reversibly after fabrication by reapplying strain. This paper demonstrates these features by fabrication of helices, structures inspired by cubes and tables, “pop‐up” structures, and soft grippers.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10072753
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Materials Technologies
- Volume:
- 4
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2365-709X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
more » « less
Abstract -
Recently developed methods in mechanically guided assembly provide deterministic access to wide-ranging classes of complex, 3D structures in high-performance functional materials, with characteristic length scales that can range from nanometers to centimeters. These processes exploit stress relaxation in prestretched elastomeric platforms to affect transformation of 2D precursors into 3D shapes by in- and out-of-plane translational displacements. This paper introduces a scheme for introducing local twisting deformations into this process, thereby providing access to 3D mesostructures that have strong, local levels of chirality and other previously inaccessible geometrical features. Here, elastomeric assembly platforms segmented into interconnected, rotatable units generate in-plane torques imposed through bonding sites at engineered locations across the 2D precursors during the process of stress relaxation. Nearly 2 dozen examples illustrate the ideas through a diverse variety of 3D structures, including those with designs inspired by the ancient arts of origami/kirigami and with layouts that can morph into different shapes. A mechanically tunable, multilayered chiral 3D metamaterial configured for operation in the terahertz regime serves as an application example guided by finite-element analysis and electromagnetic modeling.more » « less
-
The recent development of three-dimensional graphic statics (3DGS) has greatly increased the ease of designing complex and efficient spatial funicular structural forms [1]. The reciprocal diagram based 3DGS approaches not only generate highly efficient funicular structures [2], but also result in planarity constraints due to the polyhedron nature of the reciprocal diagrams [3]. Our previous research has shown the feasibility of leveraging this planarity by using planar glass sheets to materialize the 10m-span, double-layer glass bridge [3]. This paper is framed as a proof of concept for the 10m bridge and explores the form-finding, detail configuration, fabrication constraints, and assembly logic by designing and constructing a small-scale bridge prototype with a span of 2.5m. The prototype is designed in a modular approach, where each polyhedral cell of the form is materialized using a hollow glass unit (HGU) (Figure 1a), which can be prefabricated and preassembled, and therefore, greatly simplifies the assembly of the whole bridge. The compression-only form of the prototype is generated using the PolyFrame beta [4] plug-in for Rhinoceros [5]. The form-finding is carried out with a comprehensive consideration of a variety of parameters, including fabrication constraints, assembly ease, construction cost, and practicality. To start the form-finding process, a group of closed convex force polyhedrons is aggregated, controlling the topology of the form diagram and the orientations of the form elements. By manipulating the face tilting angles of the force diagram, the supported edges at the end of the bridge are all made horizontal, reducing the difficulty of the support design. Then, vertex locations and edge lengths of the form diagram are constrained, determining the final dimensions of both the bridge and the cells. After getting the geometry of the bridge, the detail developments are streamlined. Each of the 13 HGUs consists of two flat deck plates and a series of side plates (Figure 1b). To interlock the adjacent cells and prevent possible sliding, a male-female connection mechanism is introduced to the conjoint side plates of the HGUs (Figure 1b). Additionally, to eliminate the direct contact of the glass parts and prevent the stress concentration, two softer transparent materials are involved for connecting purposes. Within each HGU, silicon-based binding agent is used to hold the glass parts together; between the neighboring HGUs, plastic sheets are placed as interface materials (Figure 1b). Figure 1. a) The 2.5m-span small-scale prototype dome, b) Exploded view showing deck plates, side plates, male-female connection, and interface material For the fabrication of the glass parts, 5-axis Waterjet cutting techniques are applied. While the glass sheets for the deck plates can be purchased from the market, the irregular side plates with male-female connections need to be made from kiln-cast glass. In terms of the Waterjet cutting constraints, there is a max cutting angle of 60 degrees from vertical. With respect to this, all the glass parts are examined during the design process to ensure they all satisfy the cutting angle requirements. Aiming to achieve a fast and precise assembly, several assistant techniques are developed. On the local HGU level, assembly connectors are designed and 3D-printed to help locate the glass parts. On the global prototype level, the assembly sequence of the HGUs are simulated to avoid interference. Besides, a labeling system is also established to organize the fabricated parts and guide the entire assembly process. The design and construction of this small-scale prototype provide important information for the future development of the full-scale bridge regarding the interlocking detail design, the fabrication constraints, and assembly logic. The actual structural performance of the prototype awaits further investigation through-loading experiments.more » « less
-
Multi-layer spatial structures usually take considerable external loads with a small material usage at all scales. Polyhedral graphic statics (PGS) provides a method to design multi-layer funicular polyhedral structures, and the structural forms are usually materialized as space frames. Our previous research shows that the intrinsic planarity of the polyhedral geometries can be harnessed for efficient fabrication and construction processes using flat-sheet materials. Sheet-based structures are advantageous over conventional space frame systems because sheets can provide more load paths and constrain the kinematic degrees of freedom of the nodes. Therefore, they are more capable of taking a wider variety of load cases compared to space frames. Moreover, sheet materials can be fabricated into complex shapes using CNC milling, laser cutting, water jet cutting, and CNC bending techniques. However, not all sheets are necessary as long as the load paths are preserved and the system does not have kinematic degrees of freedom. To find an efficient set of faces that satisfies the requirements, this paper first incorporates and adapts the matrix analysis method to calculate the kinematic degrees of freedom for sheet-based structures. Then, an iterative algorithm is devised to help find a reduced set of faces with zero kinematic degrees of freedom. To attest to the advantages of this method over bar-node construction, a comparative study is carried out using finite element analysis. The results show that, with the same material usage, the sheet-based system has improved performance than the framework system under a range of loading scenarios.more » « less
-
Multi-layer spatial structures usually take considerable external loads with very limited material usage at all scales, and Polyhedral Graphic Statics (PGS) provides a method to design multi-layer funicular polyhedral structures. The structural forms usually materialized as space frames. Our previous research shows that the intrinsic planarity of the polyhedral geometries can be harnessed for efficient fabrication and construction processes using flat-sheet materials. Sheet-based structures are advantageous over the conventional space frame systems because sheets can provide more load paths and constrain the kinematic degrees of freedom of the nodes. Therefore, they can take a wider range of load compared to space frames. Moreover, sheet materials can be fabricated to complex shapes using CNC milling, laser cutting, water jet cutting, and CNC bending techniques. However, not all sheets are necessary as long as the load paths are preserved, and the system does not have kinematic degrees of freedom. To find a reduced set of faces that satisfies the requirements, this paper incorporates and adapts the matrix analysis method to calculate the kinematic degree of freedom of sheet-based structure. Built upon this, an iterative algorithm is devised to help find the reduced set of faces with zero kinematic degree of freedom. To attest the advantage of this method over bar-node construction, a comparative study is carried out using finite element analysis. The result shows that, with the same material usage, the sheet-based system has improved performance than the framework system under a wide range of loading scenarios.more » « less
