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3D printed and electrospun
the contact area between the printed strut and the nanofibers kept their original morphology in the
nanofiber mat and reduced the porosity. Therefore, printed filters, which proves that we had obtained
the light which went through the nanofiber mat the proper filter structure.
was less. The change in the contact area is clearly Figure 3F shows the typical stress-strain curves
seen in Figure 3D (230°C), in which a grid of the nanofiber filters printed with different nozzle
structure can be observed. This suggests that at temperatures. The results obtained from tensile testing
higher temperatures, a larger interface was formed are also listed in Table 1. The results presented that the
between the nanofiber mat and the printed layer. tensile strength of the 3D printed nanoporous filters
As the nanofibers were produced from the same increases greatly as the nozzle temperature increase
polymer as the printing filament, we supposed that from 210°C to 220°C. The tensile strength slightly
the hot printed filament might melt and destroy increased when the nozzle temperature was increased
the nanofibers when it contacts with nanofibers. from 220°C to 230°C. Whereas the breaking strain
However, we observed in Figure 3C and D that decreased with an increase in the nozzle temperature.

A B

C D

E F

Figure 3. Optical images of the samples with different background (A) black background; (B) white
background; (C) optical microscopic image of the filter with 210°C; (D) optical microscope image of the
filter with 230°C (E) ultraviolet–visible spectra of the reference samples and filters; (F) the stress-strain
curves of the filters with different nozzle temperatures.

6 International Journal of Bioprinting (2020)–Volume 6, Issue 4