Hailey Kuncoro
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Abdon Pena-Francesch
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Materials Science and Engineering / Engineering
Program:
Authors: Hailey Kuncoro, Cecelia Kinane, Abdon Pena-Francesch
Session: Session 7: 4:40 pm – 5:30 pm
Poster: 5
Abstract
Light-based manufacturing provides multiple opportunities to manufacture functional soft materials with intricate properties at various scales. Recent innovations in manufacturing hydrogels have enabled development of new applications for metamaterials, medical devices, and soft robotics. However, there are still challenges in controlling the photochemical processes to achieve the desired properties due to limited solubility of the precursor and crosslinker molecules commonly used in 3D printing hydrogels. Zwitterionic polymers are superhydrophilic and highly soluble due to the positively and negatively charged side chains and bulk charge neutrality, allowing it to attain a wide range of compositions. In this work, sulfobetaine methacrylated molecules are used to fabricate zwitterionic hydrogels and compared with the performance of common hydrogels. The zwitterionic hydrogels are able to achieve an increased range of mechanical properties that surpass common hydrogels and photoinks. We performed in-situ photo-rheological characterization of the photoink library to characterize the kinetic parameters of the resin and define the suitable exposure values used to 3D-print the zwitterionic hydrogels. Further optimization was needed for the printing parameters due to some overcuring issues during the printing process. To achieve ideal and consistent manufacturing results, a small amount of inhibitor was added to stabilize the formulation. As a result, we have successfully developed a zwitterionic hydrogel formulation with defined ideal printing parameters that can be applied to manufacture medical devices, anti-biofouling surfaces, and small-scale robotics.
