Hydrogels are a type of soft material composed of a large amount of water and a hydrophilic three-dimensional polymer network. Due to its similar structure to natural extracellular matrix (ECM) and good biocompatibility, it has potential application prospects in tissue engineering, flexible devices and other fields. However, due to the rapid development of science and technology, traditional preparation methods (such as template methods, pouring methods, etc.) can no longer meet the needs of implantable materials, customized medicine, personalized wear and other fields. Light-curing 3D printing technology has been widely used in the field of personalized medical customization in recent years due to its unique technical principles (efficient photochemical reaction and light spatiotemporal controllability), which brings high printing accuracy and fast speed. Among them, research on combining light-curing 3D printing technology with hydrogel materials has been widely reported.
Recently, the team of Associate Professor Zhu Xiaoqun/Professor Nie Jun from the Photopolymerization Technology Application Research Center of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Beijing University of Chemical Technology published a paper titled "Photocuring 3D Printing of Hydrogels: Techniques, Materials, and Applications in Tissue Engineering and Flexible" on Macromolecular Rapid Communications. Devices" review article.
The article first introduces the development history of light-curing 3D printing hydrogel technology (including direct ink writing (DIW), stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing rapid prototyping (DLP), continuous liquid interface extraction technology (CLIP) ), volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM) and two-photon 3D printing (TPP)) and technical characteristics. Subsequently, the raw materials of light-cured 3D printing hydrogels (including oligomers, monomers, initiators and additives) were reviewed in detail. In addition, the article also elaborates on the application of light-cured 3D printing hydrogels in the fields of tissue engineering, flexible sensing and actuators, and discusses the challenges and development prospects it faces.
Ph.D. candidates Lu Guoqiang and Tang Ruifen of Beijing University of Chemical Technology are the co-first authors of the article, and Associate Professor Zhu Xiaoqun of Beijing University of Chemical Technology is the corresponding author of the article.