As 3D printing continues to be integrated into current technologies, there is an opportunity to create new printable ink using “smart” materials. Temperature- and pH-responsive hydrogels have been demonstrated in the literature to have application in drug delivery and biomedicine. We targeted stimuli-responsive hydrogels as new printable inks with tunable mechanical and rheological properties for direct-write printers. Poly(alkylene oxide) triblock copolymers were synthesized to afford dual responsive behavior toward temperature and shear stimuli. Furthermore, functional groups were incorporated into the polymer backbone for potential post-processing photo-crosslinking or post-polymerization modification. We probed the thermoresponsive behavior using dynamic light scattering and rheological techniques in dilute and concentrated solutions. The thermoresponsive behavior is presumably attributed to the polymer micellization, which arranges in flower-like micelles. Cyclic shear thinning experiments confirmed the hydrogels showed reproducible and instantaneous strain-shearing response. We demonstrate our hydrogels are suitable as printable ink for direct write printers to produce self-standing, multi-stacked layered structures.

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels for 3D printable ink

250th National Meeting (2015)

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