title: 3D printable conducting hydrogels containing chemically converted graphene.
abstract: The development of conducting 3D structured biocompatible scaffolds for the growth of electroresponsive cells is critical in the field of tissue engineering. This work reports the synthesis and 3D processing of UV-crosslinkable conducting cytocompatible hydrogels that are prepared from methacrylated chitosan (ChiMA) containing graphenic nanosheets. The addition of chemically converted graphene resulted in mechanical and electrical properties of the composite that were significantly better than ChiMA itself, as well as improved adhesion, proliferation and spreading of L929 fibroblasts cells. The chemically converted graphene/ChiMA hydrogels were amenable to 3D printing and this was used to produce multilayer scaffolds with enhanced mechanical properties through UV-crosslinking.
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, AIIM Facility, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia. gwallace@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sepidar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sayyar
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, AIIM Facility, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia. gwallace@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sanjeev
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gambhir
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, AIIM Facility, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia. gwallace@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: Johnson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, AIIM Facility, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia. gwallace@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Officer
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, AIIM Facility, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia. gwallace@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: Gordon G
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0381-7273
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Wallace