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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Investigation of process parameters of electrohydro-

dynamic jetting for 3D printed PCL fibrous scaffolds

with complex geometries

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1
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Hui Wang , Sanjairaj Vijayavenkataraman , Yang Wu , Zhen Shu , Jie Sun and
Jerry Fuh Ying Hsi 1,2*
1 NUS Suzhou Research Institute (NUSRI), No. 377 Linquan Street, Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation
District, Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China 215123
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117575

Abstract: Tissue engineering is a promising technology in the field of regenerative medicine with its potential to create
tissues de novo. Though there has been a good progress in this field so far, there still exists the challenge of providing a
3D micro-architecture to the artificial tissue construct, to mimic the native cell or tissue environment. Both 3D printing
and 3D bioprinting are looked upon as an excellent solution due to their capabilities of mimicking the native tissue
architecture layer-by-layer with high precision and appreciable resolution. Electrohydrodynamic jetting (E-jetting) is
one type of 3D printing, in which, a high electric voltage is applied between the extruding nozzle and the substrate in
order to print highly controlled fibres. In this study, an E-jetting system was developed in-house for the purpose of 3D
printing of fibrous scaffolds. The effect of various E-jetting parameters, namely the supply voltage, solution concentra-
tion, nozzle-to-substrate distance, stage (printing) speed and solution dispensing feed rate on the diameter of printed
fibres were studied at the first stage. Optimized parameters were then used to print Polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds of
highly complex geometries, i.e., semi-lunar and spiral geometries, with the aim of demonstrating the flexibility and ca-
pability of the system to fabricate complex geometry scaffolds and biomimic the complex 3D micro-architecture of na-
tive tissue environment. The spiral geometry is expected to result in better cell migration during cell culture and tissue
maturation.
Keywords: 3D printing, PCL scaffolds, E-jet printing

*Correspondence to: Jerry Fuh Ying Hsi, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1,
Singapore 117575; Email: jerry.fuh@nus.edu.sg

Received: October 26, 2015; Accepted: November 24, 2015; Published Online: January 5, 2016
Citation: Wang H, Vijayavenkataraman S, Wu Y, et al., 2016, Investigation of process parameters of electrohydrodynamic jetting for
3D printed PCL fibrous scaffolds with complex geometries. International Journal of Bioprinting, vol.2(1): 63–71.
http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJB.2016.01.005.

1. Introduction fold and developed into a tissue. Most of the times,
S facilitate maturation. The structure and properties of
the engineered tissue is incubated in a bioreactor to
caffolds have a significant role in tissue engi-
neering. In brief, cells are cultured in vitro on a
the final engineered tissue predominantly depends on
scaffold and allowed to migrate, proliferate and
differentiate, which eventually attached to the scaf- the material, structure and properties of the scaffold.
Many requirements are expected in order for scaffolds

Investigation of process parameters of electrohydrodynamic jetting for 3D printed PCL fibrous scaffolds with complex geometries. © 2016 Hui Wang,
et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
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