Layered 3D Printing by Tethered Pyro-Electrospinning
Sara Coppola, Giuseppe Nasti, Veronica Vespini, Pietro Ferraro
Abstract
Nowadays it is easy to imagine that the exploitation of different additive manufacturing approaches could find use in regenerative medicine and frontiers nanotechnology with a strong interest in the development of in vivo bio-incubators that better replicate the tissue environment. Various electrospinning technologies have been exploited for the fabrication of composite polymeric architectures, where fibers have been used for the construction layer by layer of micro-architectures. Unfortunately, in case of processing biomaterials, the intrinsic factors of the materials could become obstacles when considering such advanced engineering methods. Here, for the first time, we use the pyro-EHD process for the fabrication of layered three-dimensional architectures made using a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer. The proposed approach for layered 3D printing works at mild temperature allowing deposition at high resolution and great flexibility in manufacturing, avoiding high voltage generators, and nozzles. The layered 3D printing, activated by the pyro-electric effect, is discussed and characterized in terms of geometrical features and processing parameters. Different geometries and micro-architecture (wall, square, triangle, and hybrid structures) have been demonstrated and over printing of composite polymer, obtained by mixing multiwall carbon nanotubes and fluorochrome, has been discussed, focusing on the use of a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer.