Ferric ion crosslinking-based 3D printing of graphene oxide and
its evaluation as bio-scaffold in tissue engineering
Renhao Lu1,#, Wuhua Zhang1, Yuting
He2, 3, Siyuan Zhang1, Qian
Fu2, 3, Yuan Pang1, 4, *, Wei
Sun1, 4, 5, *
1 Biomanufacturing Center, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing 100084,
China
2 Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization
Technologies and Systems, Chongqing University, Ministry of Education,
Chongqing 400044, China
3 Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, School of
Energy and Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044,
China
4 Biomanufacturing and Rapid Forming Technology Key
Laboratory of Beijing, Beijing 100084, China
5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Drexel
University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
# Current affiliation: Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig
School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853,
USA;
* Yuan Pang and Wei Sun contributed equally and are
co-corresponding authors.
Corresponding authors:
Yuan Pang, Ph.D.
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Room A730, Lee
Shau Kee Science and Technology Building, Haidian District, Beijing
100084, P. R. China
Email:
pangyuan31@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn,
Tel: +86 15652179395
Wei Sun, Ph.D.
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Room A743, Lee
Shau Kee Science and Technology Building, Haidian District, Beijing
100084, P. R. China.
Email:
weisun@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn,
sunwei@drexel.edu, Tel: +86
13522556809
Abstract As a precursor of graphene, graphene oxide (GO)
exhibits excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties,
besides appreciable biocompatibility in tissue engineering applications.
However, the current GO-3D fabrication technology is still in need of
optimization and simplification in order to ensure fine architecture and
reasonable mechanical property, which would further promote the
performance of GO as bio-scaffolds in cell or microorganism attachment
and in material transformation. To address this issue, we proposed a GO
ink, with appreciable rheological properties and excellent printing
performance via high-speed centrifugation and ferric ion-assisted
cross-linking. A woodpile structure with controllable micro-pores was
produced by micro-extrusion-based 3D printing technology followed by an
optimized freeze-drying process. Cellular adhesion and viability were
verified by inoculation and culture of HepaRG cells using the fabricated
GO 3D structure, thus suggesting ferric ion-assisted cross-linking and
controllable pore distribution to improve the performance of GO
construct as a bio-scaffold for in-vitro liver tissue models.
Keywords: graphene oxide, 3D printing, lyophilization, porous
structure, liver tissue engineering