skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: 4D printing in biomedical applications: emerging trends and technologies
Nature's material systems during evolution have developed the ability to respond and adapt to environmental stimuli through the generation of complex structures capable of varying their functions across direction, distances and time. 3D printing technologies can recapitulate structural motifs present in natural materials, and efforts are currently being made on the technological side to improve printing resolution, shape fidelity, and printing speed. However, an intrinsic limitation of this technology is that printed objects are static and thus inadequate to dynamically reshape when subjected to external stimuli. In recent years, this issue has been addressed with the design and precise deployment of smart materials that can undergo a programmed morphing in response to a stimulus. The term 4D printing was coined to indicate the combined use of additive manufacturing, smart materials, and careful design of appropriate geometries. In this review, we report the recent progress in the design and development of smart materials that are actuated by different stimuli and their exploitation within additive manufacturing to produce biomimetic structures with important repercussions in different but interrelated biomedical areas.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1856321
PAR ID:
10351973
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Materials Chemistry B
Volume:
9
Issue:
37
ISSN:
2050-750X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
7608 to 7632
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Materials science engineering)
    null (Ed.)
    Emulating the unique combination of structural, compositional, and functional gradation in natural materials is exceptionally challenging. Many natural structures have proved too complex or expensive to imitate using traditional processing techniques despite recent advances. Recent innovations within the field of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D Printing (3DP) have shown the ability to create structures that have variations in material composition, structure, and performance, providing a new design-for-manufacturing platform for the imitation of natural materials. AM or 3DP techniques are capable of manufacturing structures that have significantly improved properties and functionality over what could be traditionally-produced, giving manufacturers an edge in their ability to realize components for highly-specialized applications in different industries. To this end, the present work reviews fundamental advances in the use of naturally-inspired design enabled through 3DP / AM, how these techniques can be further exploited to reach new application areas and the challenges that lie ahead for widespread implementation. An example of how these techniques can be applied towards a total hip arthroplasty application is provided to spur further innovation in this area. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Advanced Functional Materials)
    Abstract Natural organisms have evolved a series of versatile functional biomaterials and structures to cope with survival crises in their living environment, exhibiting outstanding properties such as superhydrophobicity, anisotropy, and mechanical reinforcement, which have provided abundant inspiration for the design and fabrication of next‐generation multi‐functional devices. However, the lack of available materials and limitations of traditional manufacturing methods for complex multiscale structures have hindered the progress in bio‐inspired manufacturing of functional structures. As a revolutionary emerging manufacturing technology, additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) offers high design flexibility and manufacturing freedom, providing the potential for the fabrication of intricate, multiscale, hierarchical, and multi‐material structures. Herein, a comprehensive review of current 3D printing of surface/interface structures, covering the applied materials, designs, and functional applications is provided. Several bio‐inspired surface structures that have been created using 3D printing technology are highlighted and categorized based on their specific properties and applications, some properties can be applied to multiple applications. The optimized designs of these 3D‐printed bio‐inspired surfaces offer a promising prospect of low‐cost, high efficiency, and excellent performance. Finally, challenges and opportunities in field of fabricating functional surface/interface with more versatile functional material, refined structural design, and better cost‐effective are discussed. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Nanomaterials)
    The integration of 3D printed sensors into hosting structures has become a growing area of research due to simplified assembly procedures, reduced system complexity, and lower fabrication cost. Embedding 3D printed sensors into structures or bonding the sensors on surfaces are the two techniques for the integration of sensors. This review extensively discusses the fabrication of sensors through different additive manufacturing techniques. Various additive manufacturing techniques dedicated to manufacture sensors as well as their integration techniques during the manufacturing process will be discussed. This review will also discuss the basic sensing mechanisms of integrated sensors and their applications. It has been proven that integrating 3D printed sensors into infrastructures can open new possibilities for research and development in additive manufacturing and sensor materials for smart goods and the Internet of Things. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Advanced Functional Materials)
    Abstract Vapor printing technologies are emerging as powerful tools for device fabrication due to their unique solvent‐free nature. In recent years, a few articles have been published to investigate these printing technologies for applications such as organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), circuits, sensors, photodetectors, and drug screening. These printing technologies are physical vapor printing methods based on ablation, evaporation, and condensation. In this perspective, the advancement of vapor printing technologies is highlighted and introduce an additional approach enabling the chemistry of molecular precursors to be fully exploited dynamically. These additional concepts of vapor printing are introduced from the perspective of the printer's design and the development of process strategies with supporting original data. Furthermore, potential applications, challenges, and outlook are discussed. Specifically, this outlook appeals to researchers involved in nanostructured materials, semiconductors, catalysts, alloys, metals, polymers, functionally gradient materials, multi‐material structures, and additive manufacturing (AM) from academia and industries alike. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Advanced Materials)
    Abstract Liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) are appealing candidates among active materials for 4D printing, due to their reversible, programmable and rapid actuation capabilities. Recent progress has been made on direct ink writing (DIW) or Digital Light Processing (DLP) to print LCEs with certain actuation. However, it remains a challenge to achieve complicated structures, such as spatial lattices with large actuation, due to the limitation of printing LCEs on the build platform or the previous layer. Herein, a novel method to 4D print freestanding LCEs on‐the‐fly by using laser‐assisted DIW with an actuation strain up to −40% is proposed. This process is further hybridized with the DLP method for optional structural or removable supports to create active 3D architectures in a one‐step additive process. Various objects, including hybrid active lattices, active tensegrity, an actuator with tunable stability, and 3D spatial LCE lattices, can be additively fabricated. The combination of DIW‐printed functionally freestanding LCEs with the DLP‐printed supporting structures thus provides new design freedom and fabrication capability for applications including soft robotics, smart structures, active metamaterials, and smart wearable devices. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email