Technology of tissue-engineering advanced rapidly in the last decade and motivated numerous studies in cell-engineering and biofabrication. Three-dimensional (3D) tissue-engineering scaffolds play a critical role in this field, as the scaffolds provide the biomimetic microenvironments that could stimulate desired cell behaviors for regeneration. However, despite many achievements, the fabrication of 3D scaffold remains challenging due to the difficulty of encapsulating cells in 3D scaffolds, controlling cell-cell organization in 3D, and being adapted by users unfamiliar with 3D biofabrication. In this study, we circumvent these obstacles by creating a four-dimensional (4D) inkjet-printing platform. This platform produces micropatterns that self-fold into a 3D scaffold. Seeding live cells uniformly onto the micropatterns before self-folding leads to cell-encapsulating 3D scaffolds with layer-wise cell-cell organization. Photo-crosslinkable biomaterial-inks of distinct swelling rates were synthesized from gelatin, and the biomaterial-inks were patterned by a customized high-precision inkjet-printer into bilayer micropatterns that were capable of self-folding into 3D microstructures. A mathematical model was developed to help design self-folding and to aid the understanding of the self-folding mechanism. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were embedded in self-folded microtubes to mimic microvessels. HUVECs in the microtube spread, proliferated, showed high cell viability, and engrafted on the microtube's inner wall mimicking the native endothelial cells. For physician and biologist end-users, this 4D printing method provides an easy-to-use platform that supports standard two-dimensional cell-seeding protocol while enabling the users to customize 3D cellularized scaffold as desired. This work demonstrated 4D printing as a promising tool for tissue-engineering applications.

Recent interest in printable electronics and in particular paper- and textile-based electronics has fueled research in inkjet printing of colloidal drops on porous substrates. On nonporous substrates, the interplay of particle motion and solvent evaporation determines the final deposition morphology of the evaporating colloidal drop. For porous substrates, solvent infiltration into the pores adds a layer of complexity to the deposition patterns that have not been fully elucidated in the literature. In this study, the deposition of picoliter-sized aqueous colloidal droplets containing nanometer- and micrometer-sized particles onto nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide substrates is examined for different drop and particle sizes and relative humidities as well as pore diameters, porosities, and wettabilities of the porous substrates. For the cases considered, solvent infiltration is found to be much faster than both evaporation and particle motion near the contact line, and thus when the substrate fully imbibes the solvent, the well-known "coffee-ring" deposition is suppressed. However, when the solvent is only partially imbibed, a residual droplet volume exists upon completion of the infiltration. For such cases, two time scales are of importance: the time for particle motion to the contact line as a result of both diffusion and advection, t(P), and the evaporation time of the residual drop volume, t(EI). Their ratio, t(P)/t(EI), determines whether the coffee-ring deposition will be formed (t(P)/t(EI) < 1) or suppressed (t(P)/t(EI) > 1).

Lubricated surfaces have recently been introduced and studied due to their potential benefit in various configurations and applications. Combining the techniques of total internal reflection microscopy and reflection interference microscopy, we examine the dynamics of an underlying air film upon drop impact on a lubricated substrate where the thin liquid film is immiscible to the drop. In contrast to drop impact on solid surfaces where even the smallest asperities cause random breakup of the entraining air film, we report two air film failure mechanisms on lubricated surfaces. In particular, using ≈5 μm thick liquid films of high viscosity, which should make the substrate nearly atomically smooth, we show that air film rupture shifts from asperity-driven to a controlled event. At low Weber numbers (We < 2, We = ρUR/σ, U the impact velocity, R the drop radius, and ρ the density and σ the surface tension of the droplet) the droplet bounces. At intermediate We (2 < We < 10), the air film fails at the center as the top surface of the drop crashes downward owing to impact-induced capillary waves; the resulting liquid-liquid contact time is found to be independent of We. In contrast, at high We (We > 10), the air film failure occurs much earlier in time at the first inflection point of the air film shape away from the drop center, where the liquid-liquid van der Waals interactions become important. The predictable failure modes of the air film upon drop impact sheds light on droplet deposition in applications such as lubricant-infused self-cleaning surfaces.

Contact line dynamics and deposition pattern of a colloidal drop are strong functions of the particle wettability.