Dimension-Based Design of Melt Electrowritten Scaffolds

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Tissue Engineering
• Additive Manufacturing

Background:

• Tissue engineering scaffolds require precise control over fiber dimensions for optimal cellular interaction and tissue regeneration.
• Current fabrication methods often lack the flexibility to create diverse fiber architectures within a single construct.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore electrohydrodynamic stabilization for direct-written fluid jets.
• To achieve digital control over fiber diameter in melt electrowriting for scaffold fabrication.
• To enable the creation of complex, multimodal, and multiphasic scaffolds with tailored fiber dimensions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized melt electrowriting with electrohydrodynamic stabilization of fluid jets.
• Digitally controlled fiber diameter by varying mass flow rate and collector speed, independent of applied voltage.
• Optimized collector speed relative to critical translation speed for enhanced placement accuracy.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated fabrication of fibers with discrete diameters ranging from 2-50 µm using a single nozzle.
• Achieved the widest spectrum of fiber diameters through simultaneous adjustment of mass flow rate and collector speed.
• Successfully fabricated medical-grade poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds with complex architectures in a single print.

Conclusions:

• Digital control over fiber diameter during melt electrowriting is feasible and effective.
• This technique offers new design opportunities for precise scaffold fabrication in biomedical applications.
• The ability to create multimodal and multiphasic scaffolds with a single nozzle enhances manufacturing efficiency and versatility.