A June 16, 2022 edition of the materials science journal Advanced Materials includes a study, published by a team at the University of Houston, on 3D printed, micro-scale, organic electronics. The team was led by UH professor Mohammad Reza Abidjan, director of the Advanced Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics for Neural Interfaces laboratory at the university.
The study revolved around the team’s creation of a unique 3D printing resin, infused with an organic semiconductor (OS) material. The researchers used the resin to print multiple objects, including a micro-printed circuit board, on a multi-photon lithography (MPL) 3D printer.
Notably, the team found that adding just one-half-of-one percent of the OS material in the resins yielded about 10 orders of magnitude (about 100 times greater) electrical conductivity compared to other MPL-based methods. Additionally, one of the objects the researchers created was a glucose biosensor, which they infused with laminin and glucose oxidase. Prior to printing, the team ran experiments to ensure that the OS composite microstructures retained bioactivity during the MPL process.
It found that, compared to the control group, the microstructures retained 94 percent bioactivity during printing. Once this was determined, the biosensor itself was printed. The team determined it to be 10 times more sensitive than existing glucose biosensors.
All the other divisions within the 3D printing sector are becoming evermore commonplace these days, so it’s nice to see that some applications of the tech are still veering into the science fiction realm. Nano-printing probably represents the last remaining frontier of that quality, and the current example is better than most. In case it wasn’t clear, one of the optimal identified applications of the tech in the study is implanted neural chips.
Aside from this, there are a wide variety of other applications, most of them involving various forms of biomedical prostheses. In addition, of course, there’s the ever-growing field of wearable sensors. Presumably, that sector (like just about everything else humans consume, to be sure) will continue to create ever-increasing amounts of garbage well into the future, so it would be a real breakthrough if “organic” in the case of electronics could eventually mean less environmentally destructive. That is, if we’re going to keep creating the garbage, we should try to make it out of as much of something that’s decomposable, as possible.
Images courtesy of University of Houston
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
You May Also Like
Axtra3D Welcomes 3D Systems Vet Rajeev Kulkarni as Chief Strategy Officer
In a strategic move to bolster its leadership team, Axtra3D, Inc., an emerging frontrunner in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, has announced the appointment of Rajeev Kulkarni as the new...
FDR vs. SLA: The Right Polymer Manufacturing Choice for Your Application
The additive manufacturing (AM) industry has no shortage of acronyms when it comes to the various methodologies of industrial 3D printing. In polymer 3D printing, there are three main methods...
Navigating China’s 3D Printing Industry in 2024
China’s 2024 economic landscape presents a complex matrix of challenges and opportunities, deeply influenced by the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, regulatory adjustments, and the global economic environment. Amid these...
Long Live AM! Design Impacts of Innovation
At the end of 2023, we saw a lot of conjecture about the demise of 3D printing and rise of Additive Manufacturing (AM). Tim Simpson and I took the road...