Premium
Fabrication of Complex 3D Fluidic Networks via Modularized Stereolithography
Author(s) -
Ching Terry,
Toh Yi-Chin,
Hashimoto Michinao
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.201901109
Subject(s) - stereolithography , fluidics , fabrication , materials science , microfluidics , 3d printing , nanotechnology , self healing hydrogels , channel (broadcasting) , computer science , engineering , electrical engineering , composite material , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , computer network , polymer chemistry
Stereolithography (SL) 3D printing has been widely applied for the fabrication of microchannels with photocurable resins and hydrogels, albeit with limitations in complexity and dimensions of attainable microchannels due to inadvertent polymerization of trapped photoresin within the channel voids and difficulty in evacuating trapped photoresin from channels after printing. Herein, a novel approach to circumvent these limitations by modularizing the fluidic network into printable subunits and assembling the printed subunits to reconstruct the fluidic network is proposed. This approach is validated by fabricating 2D and 3D hierarchical branching networks, lattice fluidic networks, helical channels, and serpentine channels, all of which are difficult to fabricate by a single attempt of 3D printing. The proposed approach offered 1) improves channel dimensions (channel w = 75 μm and h = 90 μm) and 2) increases complexity of fluidic network (up to 36 branching points). The principle of this approach is applicable to any SL printer and photocurable material for the fabrication of 3D microchannels. This approach should find applications in engineering tissue constructs recapitulating the complex 3D architecture of their vasculatures.