Issue 35, 2021

3D-Reactive printing of engineered alginate inks

Abstract

Alginate is a common component of bioinks due to its well-described ionic crosslinking mechanism and tunable viscoelastic properties. Extrusion-based 3D-printing of alginate inks requires additives, such as gelatin and Pluronic, pre- or post-printing crosslinking processes and/or coextrusion with crosslinkers. In this work, we aim to develop a different printing approach for alginate-based inks, introducing 3D-reactive printing. Indeed, the control over the crosslinking kinetics and the printing time allowed printing different inks while maintaining their final composition unaltered to identify a suitable formulation in terms of printability. Alginate solutions were crosslinked with insoluble calcium salts (CaCO3) inducing a dynamic modification of their microstructure and viscoelastic properties over time. The monitoring of fiber printability and internal microstructure, at different time points of ink gelation, was performed by means of a well-defined set of rheological tests to obtain a priori ink properties for the a posteriori 3D-printing process. This new perspective allowed 3D-reactive printing of alginate fibers with predetermined properties, without involving post-extrusion crosslinking steps and additives.

Graphical abstract: 3D-Reactive printing of engineered alginate inks

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Apr 2021
Accepted
23 Jul 2021
First published
26 Jul 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Soft Matter, 2021,17, 8105-8117

3D-Reactive printing of engineered alginate inks

L. Sardelli, M. Tunesi, F. Briatico-Vangosa and P. Petrini, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 8105 DOI: 10.1039/D1SM00604E

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