During the resorbable-polymer-boom of the 1970s and 1980s, polycaprolactone (PCL) was used in the biomaterials field and a number of drug-delivery devices. Its popularity was soon superseded by faster resorbable polymers which had fewer perceived disadvantages associated with long term degradation (up to 3-4 years) and intracellular resorption pathways; consequently, PCL was almost forgotten for most of two decades. Recently, a resurgence of interest has propelled PCL back into the biomaterials-arena. The superior rheological and viscoelastic properties over many of its aliphatic polyester counterparts renders PCL easy to manufacture and manipulate into a large range of implants and devices. Coupled with relatively inexpensive production routes and FDA approval, this provides a promising platform for the production of longer-term degradable implants which may be manipulated physically, chemically and biologically to possess tailorable degradation kinetics to suit a specific anatomical site. This review will discuss the application of PCL as a biomaterial over the last two decades focusing on the advantages which have propagated its return into the spotlight with a particular focus on medical devices, drug delivery and tissue engineering.

The return of a forgotten polymer : Polycaprolactone in the 21st century

A fully bio-based epoxy vitrimer: Self-healing, triple-shape memory and reprocessing triggered by dynamic covalent bond exchange

Vitrimers: Associative dynamic covalent adaptive networks in thermoset polymers

Projection Micro Stereolithography (PμSL) is a high-resolution (up to 0.6 μm) 3D printing technology based on area projection triggered photopolymerization, and capable of fabricating complex 3D architectures covering multiple scales and with multiple materials. This paper reviews the recent development of the PμSL based 3D printing technologies, together with the related applications. It introduces the working principle, the commercialized products, and the recent multiscale, multimaterial printing capability of PμSL as well as some functional photopolymers that are suitable to PμSL. This review paper also summarizes a few typical applications of PμSL including mechanical metamaterials, optical components, 4D printing, bioinspired materials and biomedical applications, and offers perspectives on the directions of the further development of PμSL based 3D printing technology.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2631-7990/ab8d9a/pdf

Projection micro stereolithography based 3D printing and its applications

Hydrogel-polymer hybrids have been widely used for various applications such as biomedical devices and flexible electronics. However, the current technologies constrain the geometries of hydrogel-polymer hybrid to laminates consisting of hydrogel with silicone rubbers. This greatly limits functionality and performance of hydrogel-polymer-based devices and machines. Here, we report a simple yet versatile multimaterial 3D printing approach to fabricate complex hybrid 3D structures consisting of highly stretchable and high-water content acrylamide-PEGDA (AP) hydrogels covalently bonded with diverse UV curable polymers. The hybrid structures are printed on a self-built DLP-based multimaterial 3D printer. We realize covalent bonding between AP hydrogel and other polymers through incomplete polymerization of AP hydrogel initiated by the water-soluble photoinitiator TPO nanoparticles. We demonstrate a few applications taking advantage of this approach. The proposed approach paves a new way to realize multifunctional soft devices and machines by bonding hydrogel with other polymers in 3D forms.

3D printing of highly stretchable hydrogel with diverse UV curable polymers.

Effects of reinforcement connection types and loading angles on prefabricated concrete column seismic performance

Colour changes can be achieved by straining photonic crystals or gratings embedded in stretchable materials. However, the multiple repeat units and the need for a volumetric assembly of nanostructures limit the density of information content. Inspired by surface reliefs on oracle bones and music records as means of information archival, here we endow surface-relief elastomers with multiple sets of information that are accessible by mechanical straining along in-plane axes. Distinct from Bragg diffraction effects from periodic structures, we report trenches that generate colour due to variations in trench depth, enabling individual trench segments to support a single colour. Using 3D printed cuboids, we replicated trenches of varying geometric parameters in elastomers. These parameters determine the initial colour (or lack thereof), the response to capillary forces, and the appearance when strained along or across the trenches. Strain induces modulation in trench depth or the opening and closure of a trench, resulting in surface reliefs with up to six distinct states, and an initially featureless surface that reveals two distinct images when stretched along different axes. The highly reversible structural colours are promising in optical data archival, anti-counterfeiting, and strain-sensing applications.

Wang Zhang

Papers

Effects of reinforcement connection types and loading angles on prefabricated concrete column seismic performance

Reconfiguring colours of single relief structures by directional stretching