The manufacture of self-contained, biocompatible micro-sensing devices is a major challenge in bioengineering and biotechnology. 3D printing,1 an emerging technology capable of transferring computer-aided design (CAD) quickly into customized prototypes, has been shown to be able to create artificial tissues, bionic ears, Li-ion micro battery and chemical reactionwares in ordinary laboratories without other specialized equipment. Compared with other manufacturing technologies, 3D printing can (i) rapidly produce a prototype at low cost and (ii) print customized products designed by CAD software using a desktop printer. Among 3D printing methods, direct-write 3-D printing (or “direct writing”) has become the most widely recognized and adopted technique, because of its high resolution, less rigorous processing conditions (e.g., no high temperature or laser is required), and compatibility with a wide selection of printing materials, including soft materials such as hydrogels. Direct write technique requires that the printing materials should be rheologically tailored to possess shear thinning behavior. This requirement make cyclodextrin-based supramolecular materials2 particularly adaptive – upon forming complexes with guest moieties, the non-covalent interactions can be disrupted during extrusion at a shear rate of 1–100 s-1 and quickly re-established after the removal of the shear force. Herein, we report the design and synthesis of a supramolecular 3D printing material composed of cyclodextrin-based polyrotaxanes. We discovered that, after 3D printing and post-printing process, the printed monolith possesses solvent-dependent shape changing capabilities.

Developing cyclodextrin-based 3D printing materials

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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