A volatile microemulsion method of preparing water-soluble photo-absorbers for 3D printing of high-resolution, high-water-content hydrogel structures
Xiangnan He, Jianxiang Cheng, Zechu Sun, Haitao Ye, Qingjiang Liu, Biao Zhang, Qi Ge
Abstract
. After using these water-soluble photo-absorber nanoparticles, the highest lateral and vertical resolutions of printing high-water-content (70-80 wt%) hydrogels can be improved to 5 μm and 20 μm, respectively. Moreover, the quercetin nanoparticle can be easily washed out so that we achieve colorless and transparent printed hydrogel structures with excellent mechanical deformability and biocompatibility as well as thermally controllable variations on transparency and actuation. The proposed methods pave a new efficient way to develop water-soluble photo-absorbers, which helps to greatly improve the printing resolution of the high-water-content hydrogel structure and would be beneficial to extend the application scope of hydrogels.