Page 355 - IJB-9-5

International Journal of Bioprinting 3D printing of tough and self-healing hydrogels

Figure 3. Printability and mechanical properties of hydrogel inks. (A) Photographic images of printing filament and printed structure with different
mass ratios of PVA and TA. (B) 2D-printing performance of various shapes with PVA/TA /PAA hydrogel inks through 400-, 200-, and 100-μm diameter
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nozzles, and SEM images. (C) Printed meshes structures of 2D printing and SEM image. (D) 3D-printed hydrogel by stacked structure. (E) Stress–strain
curves of each ratio of printed hydrogel inks. (F) Optical image of the bulk and printed PVA/TA /PAA hydrogel mechanical properties. (G) Stress–strain
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curves of the bulk and printed PVA/TA /PAA hydrogel ink. (H) Photographs of the self-healing hydrogel. (I) Self-healing efficiency of the hydrogel as a
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function of healing time (n = 3: n is the sample size). (J) Stress–strain curves of self-healed hydrogel for each time point. (Scale bar: 5 mm for (B), 100 µm
for SEM image of (B), 500 µm for (C), 5 mm for (D), 10 mm for (F), and 7 mm for (H)).
is pulled closer, which can lead to a decrease in Young’s Further, the evidence of the self-healing ability of both
modulus. But it still showed tissue like Young’s modulus the bulk PVA/TA /PAA hydrogels is displayed in Figure 3H.
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(~15 kPa), which falls within the range exhibited by soft For better visualization, a self-healing test was conducted
tissue (10–100 kPa) and is suitable for implementation in using PVA/TA /PAA hydrogel dyed with rhodamine
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bioelectronics . B, and the two separated hydrogel samples were placed
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Volume 9 Issue 5 (2023) 347 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.765