Fast 3D printing of fine, continuous, and soft fibers via embedded solvent exchange

Wonsik Eom, Mohammad Tanver Hossain, Vidush Parasramka, Jeongmin Kim, Ryan W. Y. Siu, Kate A. Sanders, Dakota Piorkowski, Andrew Lowe, Hyun Gi Koh, Michael F. L. Volder, Douglas S. Fudge, Randy H. Ewoldt and Sameh H. Tawfick ()
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Wonsik Eom: Dankook University
Mohammad Tanver Hossain: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Vidush Parasramka: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jeongmin Kim: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Ryan W. Y. Siu: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Kate A. Sanders: University of Cambridge
Dakota Piorkowski: Chapman University
Andrew Lowe: Chapman University
Hyun Gi Koh: Hongik University
Michael F. L. Volder: University of Cambridge
Douglas S. Fudge: Chapman University
Randy H. Ewoldt: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Sameh H. Tawfick: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Nature uses fibrous structures for sensing and structural functions as observed in hairs, whiskers, stereocilia, spider silks, and hagfish slime thread skeins. Here, we demonstrate multi-nozzle printing of 3D hair arrays having freeform trajectories at a very high rate, with fiber diameters as fine as 1.5 µm, continuous lengths reaching tens of centimeters, and a wide range of materials with elastic moduli from 5 MPa to 3500 MPa. This is achieved via 3D printing by rapid solvent exchange in high yield stress micro granular gel, leading to radial solidification of the extruded polymer filament at a rate of 2.33 μm/s. This process extrudes filaments at 5 mm/s, which is 500,000 times faster than meniscus printing owing to the rapid solidification which prevents capillarity-induced fiber breakage. This study demonstrates the potential of 3D printing by rapid solvent exchange as a fast and scalable process for replicating natural fibrous structures for use in biomimetic functions.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-55972-1

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