Perspectives on three-dimensional printing of self-assembling materials and structures

Isabelle Su, Gang Seob Jung, Neosha Narayanan, Markus J. Buehler

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Spiders, silks, and webs are marvels of nature that have inspired high-performance material design, resilient structural design, and innovative manufacturing in the materials science and engineering fields. In this article, we review the roles and mechanisms of self-assembly and spinning processes for making hierarchical structures of synthetic and natural fibers with multifunctionality. We discuss the ability of spider webs to maintain their functionality under construction while withstanding predator, human, and environmental threats, which comes from their self-assembled structures from nanoscales to macroscales. We conclude by exploring the future of novel mobile, autonomous, time- and cost-effective spider-inspired three-dimensional printing technology for making resilient biomaterials, structures, and synthetic silk materials.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)59-67
Number of pages9
JournalCurrent Opinion in Biomedical Engineering
Volume15
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2020

Funding

This work was supported by ONR ( N000IK14-19-1-2375 ), US Air Force Office of Scientific Research ( FA9550-15-1-0514 ), and NIH ( U01 EB014976 ), ARO ( W911NF1920098 ), as well as MIT CAST through a grant from The Mellon Foundation . We further acknowledge support from the MIT UROP office .

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • Self-assembling materials
  • Sonification
  • Spider silk
  • Spider webs

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