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Melt Electrospinning Writing of Highly Ordered Large Volume Scaffold Architectures
Author(s) -
Wunner Felix M.,
Wille MarieLuise,
Noonan Thomas G.,
Bas Onur,
Dalton Paul D.,
DeJuanPardo Elena M.,
Hutmacher Dietmar W.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201706570
Subject(s) - electrospinning , materials science , fabrication , scaffold , volume (thermodynamics) , nanotechnology , nanofiber , process (computing) , fiber , tissue engineering , composite material , biomedical engineering , polymer , computer science , medicine , alternative medicine , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics , operating system
The additive manufacturing of highly ordered, micrometer‐scale scaffolds is at the forefront of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine research. The fabrication of scaffolds for the regeneration of larger tissue volumes, in particular, remains a major challenge. A technology at the convergence of additive manufacturing and electrospinning–melt electrospinning writing (MEW)–is also limited in thickness/volume due to the accumulation of excess charge from the deposited material repelling and hence, distorting scaffold architectures. The underlying physical principles are studied that constrain MEW of thick, large volume scaffolds. Through computational modeling, numerical values variable working distances are established respectively, which maintain the electrostatic force at a constant level during the printing process. Based on the computational simulations, three voltage profiles are applied to determine the maximum height (exceeding 7 mm) of a highly ordered large volume scaffold. These thick MEW scaffolds have fully interconnected pores and allow cells to migrate and proliferate. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study to report that z ‐axis adjustment and increasing the voltage during the MEW process allows for the fabrication of high‐volume scaffolds with uniform morphologies and fiber diameters.