Issue 5, 2018

Chaotic printing: using chaos to fabricate densely packed micro- and nanostructures at high resolution and speed

Abstract

Nature generates densely packed micro- and nanostructures to enable key functionalities in cells, tissues, and other materials. Current fabrication techniques, due to limitations in resolution and speed, are far less effective at creating microstructures. Yet, the development of extensive amounts of surface area per unit volume will enable applications and manufacturing strategies not possible today. Here, we introduce chaotic printing—the use of chaotic flows for the rapid generation of complex, high-resolution microstructures. A simple and deterministic chaotic flow is induced in a viscous liquid, and its repeated stretching and folding action deforms an “ink” (i.e., a drop of a miscible liquid, fluorescent beads, or cells) at an exponential rate to render a densely packed lamellar microstructure that is then preserved by curing or photocrosslinking. This exponentially fast creation of fine microstructures exceeds the limits of resolution and speed of the currently available 3D printing techniques. Moreover, we show that the architecture of the microstructure to be created with chaotic printing can be predicted by mathematical modelling. We envision diverse applications for this technology, including the development of densely packed catalytic surfaces and highly complex multi-lamellar and multi-component tissue-like structures for biomedical and electronics applications.

Graphical abstract: Chaotic printing: using chaos to fabricate densely packed micro- and nanostructures at high resolution and speed

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
22 3月 2018
Accepted
11 6月 2018
First published
03 7月 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Mater. Horiz., 2018,5, 813-822

Chaotic printing: using chaos to fabricate densely packed micro- and nanostructures at high resolution and speed

G. Trujillo-de Santiago, M. M. Alvarez, M. Samandari, G. Prakash, G. Chandrabhatla, P. I. Rellstab-Sánchez, B. Byambaa, P. Pour Shahid Saeed Abadi, S. Mandla, R. K. Avery, A. Vallejo-Arroyo, A. Nasajpour, N. Annabi, Y. S. Zhang and A. Khademhosseini, Mater. Horiz., 2018, 5, 813 DOI: 10.1039/C8MH00344K

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