Roll-to-roll, high-resolution 3D printing of shape-specific particles.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38480965.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41586-024-07061-4 and PMC identifier 10937373.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Particle fabrication has attracted recent attention owing to its diverse applications in bioengineering<sup>1,2</sup>, drug and vaccine delivery<sup>3-5</sup>, microfluidics<sup>6,7</sup>, granular systems<sup>8,9</sup>, self-assembly<sup>5,10,11</sup>, microelectronics<sup>12,13</sup> and abrasives<sup>14</sup>. Herein we introduce a scalable, high-resolution, 3D printing technique for the fabrication of shape-specific particles based on roll-to-roll continuous liquid interface production (r2rCLIP). We demonstrate r2rCLIP using single-digit, micron-resolution optics in combination with a continuous roll of film (in lieu of a static platform), enabling the rapidly permutable fabrication and harvesting of shape-specific particles from a variety of materials and with complex geometries, including geometries not possible to achieve with advanced mould-based techniques. We demonstrate r2rCLIP production of mouldable and non-mouldable shapes with voxel sizes as small as 2.0 × 2.0 µm<sup>2</sup> in the print plane and 1.1 ± 0.3 µm unsupported thickness, at speeds of up to 1,000,000 particles per day. Such microscopic particles with permutable, intricate designs enable direct integration within biomedical, analytical and advanced materials applications.