Due to their excellent biocompatibility, hydrogel materials are extensively utilized. However, higher precision remains a challenge for micro- and nanofabrication biomaterials like small-diameter artificial blood vessels, flexible biomaterial microdevices, minimally invasive tissue adhesives, and organ and tissue engineering stents.
A biocompatible hydrogel photoresist was created by the team of Prof. Zheng Meiling from the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The new strategy uses DL-Dithiothreitol as the thiol-ene click chemical cross-linker, cyclopentanone-based material as the initiator, and hyaluronic acid vinyl ester (HAVE) as the monomer.
The HAVE photoresist strategy’s two-photon polymerization (TPP) results in a 22 nm resolution. On May 23, this work appeared in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
The HAVE hydrogel photoresists’ TPP was thoroughly examined in this study, and the 22 nm feature size was achieved. The photoresist detailing was advanced, and the biocompatibility of 3D hydrogel cell frameworks was investigated. Additionally, the impact of the attention position on the laser limit was exhaustively examined.
Moreover, biocompatible 3D hydrogel framework structures were created. The convention proposed in this study is promising for manufacturing complex biocompatible 3D hydrogel structures and investigating the likely applications in microenvironment guidelines, tissue design, biomedicine, and biomimetic science.
More information: Qi Duan et al, 22 nm Resolution Achieved by Femtosecond Laser Two-Photon Polymerization of a Hyaluronic Acid Vinyl Ester Hydrogel, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c04346
