Electric Field-driven Fused Deposition of High-resolution Polycaprolactone Microstructures.

Polycaprolactone (PCL) fibers have been widely used in the preparation of biological scaffolds. However, near-field electrospinning and melt electrospinning limitations in terms of molding height and residual charge, make it difficult to fabricate high-resolution complex PCL microstructures. This study proposes an electric field-driven melting deposition technique for direct writing of high-resolution PCL microstructures, which can be used to fabricate PCL micro-scaffolds. The basic process principle of continuous cone jet mode was analyzed, an electric field-driven melting deposition-based direct writing system was developed, and single-layer and multi-layer deposition experiments were systematically conducted. Further, the effect of collecting plate velocity on deposition morphology was investigated. The single-layer raster and grid structures were prepared. A model was established to predict the forming height of a single deposition line based on the deposition line width and solidification angle. The multi-layer deposition and direct writing of the “wall” structure was observed, and the multi-layer “wall” structure and the ring structure with a high aspect ratio were prepared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]