Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel

Hydrogels have found wide applications in various fields, but further advances in hydrogel-based applications hinge upon overcoming the challenge of generating complex structures. Although three-dimensional (3D) printing enables customized designs, it remains challenging to print hydrogel structures...

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Main Authors: Zhou, Quan, Chng, Choon-Peng, Zhao, Yukai, Wang, Yueying, Xu, Hongmei, Huo, Yucheng, Huang, Changjin
Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174771
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1747712024-04-13T16:49:03Z Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel Zhou, Quan Chng, Choon-Peng Zhao, Yukai Wang, Yueying Xu, Hongmei Huo, Yucheng Huang, Changjin School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Engineering Alginate hydrogel Ethanol Hydrogels have found wide applications in various fields, but further advances in hydrogel-based applications hinge upon overcoming the challenge of generating complex structures. Although three-dimensional (3D) printing enables customized designs, it remains challenging to print hydrogel structures directly without using supporting materials or incorporating polymeric or solid thickeners due to the low printability of hydrogel precursor solutions. Here, we demonstrate that direct 3D printing of sodium alginate (SA) hydrogel structures can be achieved by introducing ethanol into the SA solution. On the one hand, ethanol enables a sol-to-gel transition to occur by lowering the temperature. Our molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal that the gelation occurs due to disrupted hydrogen bonding interaction among SA chains and water. On the other hand, the presence of ethanol notably increases the viscosity, yield stress, and shear-thinning feature of SA solution, making it an ideal 3D printing ink. An isotropic shrinkage of the printed structures is observed after further gelation with Ca2+ ions and the removal of ethanol. Our study provides an effective approach for direct printing of SA hydrogels with enhanced printing resolution (>10 %), paving the way for more advanced hydrogel-based applications in various fields. Ministry of Education (MOE) Published version This work benefited from the use of the SasView application, originally developed under NSF Award DMR - 0520547. SasView also contains code developed with funding from the EU Horizon 2020 program under the SINE2020 project Grant No 654000. C.H. would like to acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its Academic Research Fund Tier 2 (MOE-T2EP50121-0004). 2024-04-09T07:26:39Z 2024-04-09T07:26:39Z 2024 Journal Article Zhou, Q., Chng, C., Zhao, Y., Wang, Y., Xu, H., Huo, Y. & Huang, C. (2024). Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel. Materials & Design, 239, 112746-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2024.112746 0264-1275 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174771 10.1016/j.matdes.2024.112746 2-s2.0-85184998128 239 112746 en MOE-T2EP50121-0004 Materials & Design © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/). application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering
Alginate hydrogel
Ethanol
spellingShingle Engineering
Alginate hydrogel
Ethanol
Zhou, Quan
Chng, Choon-Peng
Zhao, Yukai
Wang, Yueying
Xu, Hongmei
Huo, Yucheng
Huang, Changjin
Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel
description Hydrogels have found wide applications in various fields, but further advances in hydrogel-based applications hinge upon overcoming the challenge of generating complex structures. Although three-dimensional (3D) printing enables customized designs, it remains challenging to print hydrogel structures directly without using supporting materials or incorporating polymeric or solid thickeners due to the low printability of hydrogel precursor solutions. Here, we demonstrate that direct 3D printing of sodium alginate (SA) hydrogel structures can be achieved by introducing ethanol into the SA solution. On the one hand, ethanol enables a sol-to-gel transition to occur by lowering the temperature. Our molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal that the gelation occurs due to disrupted hydrogen bonding interaction among SA chains and water. On the other hand, the presence of ethanol notably increases the viscosity, yield stress, and shear-thinning feature of SA solution, making it an ideal 3D printing ink. An isotropic shrinkage of the printed structures is observed after further gelation with Ca2+ ions and the removal of ethanol. Our study provides an effective approach for direct printing of SA hydrogels with enhanced printing resolution (>10 %), paving the way for more advanced hydrogel-based applications in various fields.
author2 School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
author_facet School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Zhou, Quan
Chng, Choon-Peng
Zhao, Yukai
Wang, Yueying
Xu, Hongmei
Huo, Yucheng
Huang, Changjin
format Article
author Zhou, Quan
Chng, Choon-Peng
Zhao, Yukai
Wang, Yueying
Xu, Hongmei
Huo, Yucheng
Huang, Changjin
author_sort Zhou, Quan
title Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel
title_short Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel
title_full Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel
title_fullStr Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel
title_full_unstemmed Ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel
title_sort ethanol-induced gelation enables direct three-dimensional printing of sodium alginate hydrogel
publishDate 2024
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174771
_version_ 1814047117653573632