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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 31, 2026

Printing Thermoresponsive Reverse Molds for the Creation of Patterned Two-component Hydrogels for 3D Cell Culture
10:49

Printing Thermoresponsive Reverse Molds for the Creation of Patterned Two-component Hydrogels for 3D Cell Culture

Published on: July 10, 2013

3D printable shape-customized hydrogel thermocells.

Lili Liu1, Yiwen Bo1, Ding Zhang1

  • 1School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China.

National Science Review
|May 29, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed 3D-printed hydrogel thermocells using digital light processing and a thermoelectric solvent-exchange strategy. This innovation enhances heat-to-electric conversion efficiency and enables multifunctional flexible electronics by conforming to complex heat sources.

Keywords:
3D printingcustomized designhydrogel thermocellsmaximized heat utilizationthermoelectric conversion

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Fabricating Degradable Thermoresponsive Hydrogels on Multiple Length Scales via Reactive Extrusion, Microfluidics, Self-assembly, and Electrospinning

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Last Updated: May 31, 2026

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Fabricating Degradable Thermoresponsive Hydrogels on Multiple Length Scales via Reactive Extrusion, Microfluidics, Self-assembly, and Electrospinning

Published on: April 16, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Energy Harvesting
  • Flexible Electronics

Background:

  • Hydrogel thermocells offer promising heat-to-electric conversion and stretchability for energy harvesting and flexible electronics.
  • Mismatched interfaces between hydrogel thermocells and heat sources limit efficiency.
  • Direct 3D printing of hydrogel thermocells faces challenges like water evaporation and ink incompatibility.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop customizable, stretchable hydrogel thermocells that conform to complex heat-source geometries.
  • To overcome limitations of direct 3D printing for hydrogel thermocells.
  • To improve heat utilization and energy conversion efficiency in thermocells.

Main Methods:

  • Combined 3D digital light processing with a thermoelectric solvent-exchange strategy.
  • Utilized nonvolatile deep eutectic solvents in photopolymer ink precursors to form eutectogel networks.
  • Achieved high structural fidelity down to 130 μm using UV-initiated polymerization.

Main Results:

  • Created 3D-printed hydrogel thermocells (DHFGs) with excellent thermoelectric performance (3.5 mV K⁻¹).
  • Conformal design extended the working temperature range by 6.0 K and boosted output power by ~350%.
  • Microstructured DHFGs showed ~4.4 times higher pressure sensitivity (<1.0 kPa) than unstructured ones.

Conclusions:

  • The 3D printing approach optimizes thermal-energy utilization through geometric matching.
  • This method simplifies assembly and enables flexible thermocells with high performance and complex architectures.
  • The developed DHFGs offer multifunctionality for advanced energy harvesting and sensing applications.