The Impact of Including Carbonyl Iron Particles on the Melt Electrowriting Process

Abstract

AbstractMelt electrowriting, a high‐resolution additive manufacturing technique, is used in this study to process a magnetic polymer‐based blend for the first time. Carbonyl iron (CI) particles homogenously distribute into poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) melts to result in well‐defined, highly porous structures or scaffolds comprised of fibers ranging from 30 to 50 µm in diameter. This study observes that CI particle incorporation is possible up to 30 wt% without nozzle clogging, albeit that the highest concentration results in heterogeneous fiber morphologies. In contrast, the direct writing of homogeneous PVDF fibers with up to 15 wt% CI is possible. The fibers can be readily displaced using magnets at concentrations of 1 wt% and above. Combined with good viability of L929 CC1 cells using Live/Dead imaging on scaffolds for all CI concentrations indicates that these formulations have potential for the usage in stimuli‐responsive applications such as 4D printing.