Engineers have invented a printing method for a smart gel that could be used to create materials for transporting small molecules like water or drugs to human organs.The approach involves printing a 3D object with a hydrogel (water-containing gel) that changes shape over time when temperatures change, said senior author of the study Howon Lee, Assistant Professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
The study, published online in the journal Scientific Reports, demonstrated fast, scalable and high-resolution 3D printing of hydrogels, which remain solid and retain their shape despite containing water.<\/p>\n
Hydrogels are everywhere in our lives, including in contact lenses, diapers and the human body.<\/p>\n
The smart gel could provide structural rigidity in organs such as the lungs and can contain small molecules like water or drugs to be transported in the body and released.<\/p>\n
It could also create a new area of soft robotics and enable new applications in flexible sensors and actuators, biomedical devices and platforms or scaffolds for cells to grow, Lee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe full potential of this smart hydrogel has not been unleashed until now,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe added another dimension to it and this is the first time anybody has done it on this scale. They\u2019re flexible, shape-morphing materials. I like to call them smart materials,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The engineers worked with a hydrogel that has been used for decades in devices that generate motion and biomedical applications such as scaffolds for cells to grow on.<\/p>\n
They learned how to precisely control hydrogel growth and shrinkage.<\/p>\n
In temperatures below 32 degrees Celsius, the hydrogel absorbs more water and swells in size.<\/p>\n
When temperatures exceed 32 degrees Celsius, the hydrogel begins to expel water and shrinks, the study showed.<\/p>\n
The engineers also found that the objects they could create with the hydrogel range from the width of a human hair to several millimeters long.<\/p>\n
IANS<\/p>\n
Picture courtesy: Alamy Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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