Dimension-Based Design of Melt Electrowritten Scaffolds

作者：Hrynevich Andrei; Elci Bilge S; Haigh Jodie N; McMaster Rebecca; Youssef Almoatazbellah; Blum Carina; Blunk Torsten; Hochleitner Gernot; Groll Juergen; Dalton Paul D^*

来源：Small, 2018, 14(22): 1800232.

DOI：10.1002/smll.201800232

• biofabrication
• electrohydrodynamic
• melt electrospinning writing
• scaffold design
• tissue engineering

The electrohydrodynamic stabilization of direct-written fluid jets is explored to design and manufacture tissue engineering scaffolds based on their desired fiber dimensions. It is demonstrated that melt electrowriting can fabricate a full spectrum of various fibers with discrete diameters (2-50 mu m) using a single nozzle. This change in fiber diameter is digitally controlled by combining the mass flow rate to the nozzle with collector speed variations without changing the applied voltage. The greatest spectrum of fiber diameters was achieved by the simultaneous alteration of those parameters during printing. The highest placement accuracy could be achieved when maintaining the collector speed slightly above the critical translation speed. This permits the fabrication of medical-grade poly(epsilon-caprolactone) into complex multimodal and multiphasic scaffolds, using a single nozzle in a single print. This ability to control fiber diameter during printing opens new design opportunities for accurate scaffold fabrication for biomedical applications.

• 出版日期2018-5-29