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

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. Soft hair arrays anchored to a substrate are useful for bio-inspired engineering applications. Here, the authors demonstrate a rapid 3D printing technique for creating fine, continuous, biomimetic hair arrays using solvent exchange. Fibers as small as 1.5 µm are printed at high speeds, offering scalability for biomimetic and structural applications.