Biomimetic Anisotropic Reinforcement Architectures by Electrically Assisted Nanocomposite 3D Printing

Yang Yang; Zeyu Chen; Xuan Song; Zhuofeng Zhang; Jun Zhang; K Kirk Shung; Qifa Zhou; Yong Chen

doi:10.1002/adma.201605750

Biomimetic Anisotropic Reinforcement Architectures by Electrically Assisted Nanocomposite 3D Printing

Adv Mater. 2017 Mar;29(11):10.1002/adma.201605750. doi: 10.1002/adma.201605750. Epub 2017 Feb 10.

Authors

Yang Yang¹, Zeyu Chen^{2

3}, Xuan Song^{1

4}, Zhuofeng Zhang¹, Jun Zhang^{2

5}, K Kirk Shung², Qifa Zhou², Yong Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 3715 McClintock Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-01932, USA.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 3650 McClintock Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410083, China.
⁴ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA.
⁵ School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.

Abstract

Biomimetic architectures with Bouligand-type carbon nanotubes are fabricated by an electrically assisted 3D-printing method. The enhanced impact resistance is attributed to the energy dissipation by the rotating anisotropic layers. This approach is used to mimic the collagen-fiber alignment in the human meniscus to create a reinforced artificial meniscus with circumferentially and radially aligned carbon nanotubes.

Keywords: anisotropic properties; artificial meniscus; biomimetics; electrically assisted 3D printing; high impact resistance.

Abstract

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