ABSTRACT
In recent years, the development of technological procedure for manipulation and dispensing of liquids and polymer with high resolution has been in the forefront of material science research and its related applications. Researchers have increasingly become interested in an advanced method of micro-fabrication that could be adaptable to microfluidic platform and cellular manipulation. Various inkjet printing methods have been developed to assess direct writing and additive manufacturing; however, such methods in general suffer drawbacks related to the temperature of the process, limited spatial resolution, nozzle clogging, needs of external electrodes, and power supply. Here we show an emerging technology in the realm of inkjet printing based on EHD. It uses the pyroelectric effect induced in ferroelectric crystals wafers made of lithium niobate or lithium tantalate. Such pyro-jet technique could be used for the high-resolution printing of low-volume droplets as well as direct printing of polymeric fibers. Its ease of use, low cost, and effectiveness make pyro-EHD printing an attractive technology for the near future in the field of biotechnology and electronics at nano-scale and micro-scale. For example, we are confident this technique will be of great help to biologists interested in rapid and multiscale in vitro cell assays, in the functionalization of substrate and fabrication of three-dimensional scaffold for tissue engineering independent of a specialized microfabrication facility, thus enabling a more accurate placement of bioink patterns and eventually of the cells, compared to other electrodynamic conventional bioprinters. In this chapter we describe the working principle of pyro-jetting or even named pyro-EHD printing and the numerous applications that allows liquids’ manipulation and printing.
