Digital light processing in a hybrid atomic force microscope: In Situ, nanoscale characterization of the printing process.

ABSTRACT: Stereolithography (SLA) and digital light processing (DLP) are powerful additive manufacturing techniques that address a wide range of applications including regenerative medicine, prototyping, and manufacturing. Unfortunately, these printing processes introduce micrometer-scale anisotropic inhomogeneities due to the resin absorptivity, diffusivity, reaction kinetics, and swelling during the requisite photoexposure. Previously, it has not been possible to characterize high-resolution mechanical heterogeneity as it develops during the printing process. By combining DLP 3D printing with atomic force microscopy in a hybrid instrument, heterogeneity of a single, in situ printed voxel is characterized. Here, we describe the instrument and demonstrate three modalities for characterizing voxels d

SUBMITTER: Higgins CI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8276139 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature