Gravity Drawing of Micro‐ and Nanofibers for Additive Manufacturing of Well‐Organized 3D‐Nanostructured Scaffolds
Nataraja Sekhar Yadavalli, Darya Asheghali, Alexander Tokarev, Weizhong Zhang, Jin Xie, Sergiy Minko
Abstract
This work introduces a gravity fiber drawing (GFD) method of making single filament nanofibers from polymer solutions and precise alignment of the fibers in 3D scaffolds. This method is advantageous for nanofiber 3D alignment in contrast to other known methods. GFD provides a technology for the fabrication of freestanding filament nanofibers of well-controlled diameter, draw ratio, and 3D organization with controllable spacing and angular orientation between nanofibers. The GFD method is capable of fabricating complex 3D scaffolds combining fibers with different diameters, chemical compositions, mechanical properties, angular orientations, and multilayer structures in the same construct. The scaffold porosity can be as high as 99% to secure transport of nutrients and space for cell infiltration and differentiation in tissue engineering and 3D cell culture applications.