Home › Cell Biology › An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components
Cell Biology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

An Additive Manufacturing Technique for the Facile and Rapid Fabrication of Hydrogel-based Micromachines with Magnetically Responsive Components

DOI: 10.3791/56727-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Design and fabricate UV-crosslinkable hydrogel structures using layer-by-layer additive manufacturing
  • ✓ Assemble independent hydrogel components into integrated devices with moving parts
  • ✓ Actuate magnetically responsive hydrogel micromachines and characterize their performance
Protocol

An additive manufacturing strategy for processing UV-crosslinkable hydrogels has been developed. This strategy allows for the layer-by-layer assembly of microfabricated hydrogel structures as well as the assembly of independent components, yielding integrated devices containing moving components that are responsive to magnetic actuation.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~4–6 hours per device (fabrication, assembly, and testing)

Steps

1
Perform layer-by-layer fabrication of hydrogels

Build UV-crosslinkable hydrogel structures sequentially using additive manufacturing techniques to create the base components of the micromachine.

▶ 00:36
2
Assemble and seal hydrogel-based device

Combine independent fabricated hydrogel components into an integrated device and seal the assembly to create a functional unit.

▶ 03:46
3
Actuate the assembled micromachine

Apply magnetic actuation to the integrated device to demonstrate movement and responsiveness of the magnetically reactive components.

▶ 05:12
4
Characterize fabricated hydrogel micromachines

Evaluate the versatility and performance of the manufactured hydrogel-based micromachines and document results from multiple device designs.

▶ 06:17
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