Tissue healing is a challenging process that requires the successful and simultaneous management of conflicting priorities. While promoting wound closure, a battle must be won against different external factors that may adversely affect the healing process. Here this problem is approached by creating asymmetrically designed double-layer Janus-type bilayer films where distinct functions are implemented into the two sides of the film. Once deployed, those Janus-type films exhibit strong adhesion to a wide variety of wet tissues and canalize the release of integrated therapeutics toward the tissue side. At the same time, the outer surface of the films acts as a shield against tribological stress, pathogens, and cellular immune recognition. Moreover, when compared to untreated wounds, Janus-treated skin lesions show accelerated wound closure as well as fast formation of new, intact tissue. Having performed their tasks, Janus-type films degrade without leaving any traces on the tissues, which makes it possible to apply them to sensitive body surfaces. Thus, it is expected that the Janus-type bilayer films designed here can be used in a variety of medical applications where conflicting demands must be met at the same time.

A major advantage of organic solar cells (OSC) is the processability out of solution allowing for advanced printing methods toward large-scale production. Controlling the blend morphology of solution coated active layers is a key challenge to optimize their power conversion efficiency. We have derived a printing procedure from an industrial coating process that facilitates tuning the nanomorphology of a blend of poly­(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as model system for OSCs. Applying an electric field during printing and the film drying process modifies the vertical film composition of the photoactive layer and optimizes the polymer crystal orientation. The choice of chloroform as solvent allows us to obtain material transport within the wet film, due to an induced electrophoretic mobility. Tailoring the morphology improves the power conversion efficiency of the OSCs by up to 25%. Our findings indicate that electrophoresis assisted printing provides an efficient approach to optimize the active layer for various material and solvent combinations that exhibit an electrophoretic mobility.

With its potential to revolutionize the field of personalized medicine by producing customized medical devices and constructs for tissue engineering at low costs, 3D printing has emerged as a highly promising technology. Recent advancements have sparked increasing interest in the printing of biopolymeric hydrogels. However, owing to the limited printability of those soft materials, the lack of variability in available bio‐inks remains a major challenge. In this study, a novel bio‐ink is developed based on functionalized mucin—a glycoprotein that exhibits a multitude of biomedically interesting properties such as immunomodulating activity and strong anti‐biofouling behavior. To achieve sufficient printability of the mucin‐based ink, its rheological properties are tuned by incorporating Laponite XLG as a stabilizing agent. It is shown that cured objects generated from this novel bio‐ink exhibit mechanical properties partially similar to that of soft tissue, show strong anti‐biofouling properties, good biocompatibility, tunable cell adhesion, and immunomodulating behavior. The presented findings suggest that this 3D printable bio‐ink has a great potential for a wide range of biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, wound healing, and soft robotics.

The modification of plastics to generate germ-reducing surface materials is a promising strategy to decrease nosocomial infections in hygiene-sensitive areas.In this paper, photocatalytically active nanoparticles were incorporated as additives, not as a coating, into silicone rubber matrix material to produce elastic antibacterial bulk materials. Samples with 5 wt% and 10 wt% of two different types of TiO 2 and ZnO were prepared and investigated. The thermal analysis of the developed materials showed a complete vulcanization of the developed materials and slight modifications of mechanical properties were found. Investigations of the surface of the materials indicated no changes in the wettability of the surfaces or in their fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) spectra, suggesting no degradation of the developed material. The photocatalytic activity on the surface of the test samples was investigated by microbial tests with Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Depending on the additive type and the test germs, the samples showed different intensities of a germ-reducing effect (up to >99,999%).

Germs are present in all areas of everyday life and can lead to dangerous infections. Surfaces with antimicrobial properties are used to reduce the risk of infection in sanitary facilities and hospitals. Apart from the addition of biocides or antibiotic agents to synthetic materials, research shows that it is possible to use the semiconductor titanium dioxide (TiO2) to generate antibacterial surfaces. Photocatalytically active TiO2 leads to the development of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are able to kill germs. The aim of this research is to use TiO2 to generate antibacterial bulk material. Nanostructured TiO2 particles were incorporated into silicone rubber to obtain a photocatalytic active polymer surface. High temperature vulcanizing (HTV) silicone rubber was used as a matrix material, and samples with 10 wt% of TiO2 were produced. The distribution of TiO2 particles in the matrix was analyzed via light microscopy. The photocatalytic activity on the surface of the test samples was studied via microbial testing with E.coli bacteria. The samples showed different intensities of the photocatalytic effect depending on the type of additive. The effort to create a germ reducing silicone rubber surface by using TiO2 as an additive was successful.