High-Resolution Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing of Molten Polycaprolactone

Abstract

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer that is commonly used in drug delivery systems, medical structures, and tissue engineering applications. Typical additive manufacturing methods of PCL structures for tissue engineering applications either require harsh organic solvents or are only capable of producing relatively large feature sizes, which are not compatible with some of the desired applications. Electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing, an additive manufacturing process which uses an electric field to induce jetting from a microcapillary nozzle, is an attractive method for producing PCL tissue engineering structures due to the achievable resolution and the ability to print highly viscous inks. In this work, experimental investigation into the ability to print pure, molten PCL using the e-jet process is carried out. A characterization of the process inputs that yield suitable printing regimes is presented. Demonstration of the achievable resolution with e-jet printing is presented in the form of printed, high-resolution structures.