Improved Accuracy Achieved by Researchers Using Biocompatible Hydrogel Photoresist

Hydrogels are widely used because of their excellent biocompatibility. However, microfabrication and nanofabrication biomaterials, such as small diameter artificial blood vessels, flexible biomaterial microdevices, minimally invasive tissue adhesives, and organ and tissue engineering stents, still face the challenge of high fidelity.

Professor Zeng Meiling’s team from the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a biocompatible hydrogel photoresist. In the new strategy, hyaluronic acid phenyl ester (HAVE) is the monomer, cyclopentanone-based materials are the initiator, and DL-Dithiothreitol is the N-thiol chemical linker.

The proposed two-photon polymerization (TPP) of the HAVE photoresist strategy leads to a resolution of 22 nm. This work was published in Applied Materials and ACS Interfaces On May 23rd.

In this study, the researchers extensively investigated the TPP of HAVE Hydrogel photoresists, and achieved a feature size of 22 nm. Improved photoresist formulation and exploration of the biocompatibility of 3D hydrogel cell scaffolds. The effect of focus position on laser threshold was also comprehensively investigated.

Moreover, biocompatible 3D hydrogel scaffold structures were fabricated. The protocol proposed in this study is promising for fabricating complex, biocompatible 3D hydrogel structures and exploring potential applications in microenvironment regulation, tissue engineering, biomedicine, and biomimetic sciences.