3D Bioplotter Research Papers
Anisotropic, Strong, and Thermally Insulating 3D-Printed Nanocellulose–PNIPAAM Aerogels
Cellulose is a promising candidate for the fabrication of superinsulating materials, which would be of great interest for thermal management applications as well as for the scientific community. Until now, the production of strong cellulose-based aerogels has been dominated by traditional manufacturing processes, which have limited the possibilities to achieve the structural control and mechanical properties seen in natural materials such as wood. In this work, we show a simple but versatile method to fabricate cellulose aerogels in intricate geometries. We take advantage of the 3D printing technique direct ink writing to control both the shape and the thermal-mechanical properties…
3D printing of shape-morphing and antibacterial anisotropic nanocellulose hydrogels
We report on a procedure for the preparation, printing and curing of antibacterial poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) nanocellulose-reinforced hydrogels. These composites present a highly anisotropic microstructure which allows to control and modulate the resulting mechanical properties. The incorporation of such nanoparticles enables us to modify both the strength and the humidity-dependent swelling direction of printed parts, offering a fourth-dimensional property to the resulting composite. Antibacterial properties of the hydrogels were obtained by incorporating the functionalized peptide ε-polylysine, modified with the addition of a methacrylate group to ensure UV-immobilization. We highlight the relevance of well-adapted viscoelastic properties of our material for 3D printing by…