One-step, high-speed, thermal-electric aerosol printing of piezoelectric bio-organic movies

Amidst the continued surge in demand for bio-MEMS, wearable/implantable electronics and bio-tissue therapeutics, the pursuit of piezoelectric biomaterials has turn out to be a precedence, because of their exceptional electromechanical properties, biocompatibility, and bioresorbability.

Nonetheless, their technological potential is restrained by the challenges of exact manipulation of nano-biomolecules, controlling their progress throughout the nano-to-macro hierarchy, and tuning fascinating mechanical properties.

For the reason that discovery of organic piezoelectricity in wool and hair in 1941, makes an attempt to activate piezoelectricity in biomaterials by way of exterior electrical poling have confirmed largely unsuccessful. For 80 years, the problem has remained unaddressed, forming an enormous hole between laboratory piezoelectric biomaterials and sensible bio-devices.

Our analysis workforce led by The Hong Kong College of Science and Expertise (HKUST) has developed a breakthrough know-how that makes use of thermal-electrically triggered aerosols to manufacture versatile piezoelectric biofilms. The work is printed within the journal Science Advances.

The developed thermal-electric aerosol (TEA) printer is able to one-step, high-speed, and roll-to-roll printing of piezoelectric biofilms for the manufacturing of miniaturized/versatile bioelectronics, wearable/implantable micro-devices and bio-tissue therapeutics, providing the potential of industrial manufacturing of piezoelectric biofilms.

The mixture of top-down design freedom provided by additive manufacturing and bottom-up management over nano-biomolecules showcases the feasibility and boundless prospects of bridging the hole between laboratory piezoelectric biomaterials and sensible bio-devices.

Conventional biomolecular meeting strategies usually require intensive self-aligning time (from ~0.5 h to ~48 h), which not solely brings difficulties for high-speed manufacturing, but additionally results in undesired structural defects.

In contrast, the TEA printer, utilizing electrohydrodynamic aerosolizing and in-situ electrical poling, permits for ~8,600 mm printing size per day, two orders of magnitude quicker than the prevailing methods.

The glycine/polyvinylpyrrolidone movies we produced show the piezoelectric voltage coefficient of 190 × 10⁻³ volt-meters per newton, surpassing that of broadly used industry-standard lead zirconate titanate by roughly 10-fold. Moreover, these movies show almost two orders of magnitude enchancment in mechanical flexibility in comparison with glycine crystals.

Our TEA printer exhibits printing functionality for wide-ranging courses of biomaterials corresponding to glycine, chitosan, and poly(L-lactic acid). The following part of analysis will deal with leveraging the TEA printing and piezoelectric biomaterial libraries, in addition to machine-learning-guided design methods to speed up the event of a broad vary of piezoelectric biomaterials for versatile bioelectronics and bio-tissues therapeutics.

This story is a part of Science X Dialog, the place researchers can report findings from their printed analysis articles. Go to this web page for details about Science X Dialog and easy methods to take part.

Li Xuemu is now a Postdoc fellow in Mechanical Engineering on the Hong Kong College of Science and Expertise (HKUST). His analysis pursuits embody superior manufacturing, piezoelectric/ferroelectric, biomaterials, versatile electronics and gentle robotics, biomedical engineering, MEMS, sensors, vitality harvesting, and ultrasonic transducers.