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Rational Design of Purely Inorganic Self-Healing Colloidal Hydrogels To Enable "Green" 3D Printing of Bioglass-Based
Zhenzhen Dou1,2, Dize Li3, Kaiwen Chen1,2
1MOE Key Laboratory of Bio-Intelligent Manufacturing, Dalian Key Laboratory of Artificial Organ and Regenerative Medicine, School of Bioengineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
ACS Nano
|September 3, 2025
Summary
We developed novel inorganic self-healing colloidal gels for additive-free 3D printing. This green strategy enables low-temperature sintering of strong ceramic and glass constructs, preserving bioactivity for bone regeneration.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Biomaterials Engineering
- Colloid Science
Background:
- Traditional ceramic/glass 3D printing uses organic additives and high-temperature sintering, leading to high costs, long processing times, and potential cytotoxicity.
- These conventional methods can negatively impact the bioactivity and functionality of the final inorganic components, limiting their biomedical applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop purely inorganic self-healing colloidal gels for additive-free 3D printing.
- To enable low-temperature sintering (LTS) of strong, bioactive inorganic constructs.
- To provide a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly fabrication strategy for biomedical applications.
Main Methods:
- Formulation of purely inorganic colloidal gels using electrostatically attractive silica-based hard nanospheres.
- Cross-scale analysis integrating colloidal assembly theory with experimental characterizations to understand structural and mechanical properties.
- Demonstration of 3D printing, shape fidelity, reprocessability, and LTS processing at ~700 °C.
Main Results:
- Development of strong (maximal compressive modulus ~2.3 MPa) self-healing inorganic colloidal gels.
- Successful additive-free 3D printing with excellent printability, shape fidelity, and reprocessability.
- Fabrication of bioactive bioglass-based bone substitutes via LTS, showing improved in vivo osteogenesis and osteointegrity.
Conclusions:
- Rationale design of self-healing colloidal gels provides a high-performance printable ink for additive-free 3D printing.
- Low-temperature sintering of these inorganic gels offers a green, cost-efficient strategy for fabricating functional 3D structures.
- This approach facilitates customized fabrication of biomedical devices, such as bone substitutes, with enhanced bioactivity and osteointegration.
