New polymer fibre printing technique ‘could aid nerve regeneration’

A simple new technique for drawing or imprinting complex nanometric patterns on hollow polymer fibres has been developed by Swiss researchers.

The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) team have created a means of imprinting nanometric patterns on the inside and outside of polymer fibres, using a technique called thermal drawing.

This involves engraving or imprinting millimetre-sized patterns on a preform, which is then heated and stretched into a long, thin fibre and allowed to harden again, causing the pattern to shrink while maintaining its proportions and position.

To ensure the pattern is maintained even at a microscopic scale, the imprinted preform was sandwiched in a sacrificial polymer, which reduces the surface tension. In doing so, it became possible to create 300-nanometre patterns, though it could be possible to make them as small as several tens of nanometres.

Such fibres could prove useful in guiding nerve regeneration or stem-cell growth along textured channels, or used to break down the fibre at a specific location and point in time in order to release drugs as part of a smart bandage.

Fabien Sorin, head of EPFL's laboratory of photonic materials and fibre devices, said: "Fibres that are rendered water-resistant by the pattern could be used to make clothes, or we could give the fibres special optical effects for design or detection purposes. There is also much to be done with the many new microfluidic systems out there."

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