Scientists assemble matter in 3D using sound waves for 3D printing.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and the Heidelberg University have
created a new technology to assemble matter in 3D. Their concept uses multiple acoustic holograms to generate pressure fields with which solid particles, gel beads and even biological cells can be printed. These results pave the way for novel 3D cell culture techniques with applications in biomedical engineering.
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing enables the fabrication of complex parts from functional or biological materials. Conventional 3D printing can be a slow process, where objects are constructed one line or one layer at a time. Researchers in Heidelberg and Tübingen now demonstrate how to form a 3D object from smaller building blocks in just a single step. "We were able to assemble microparticles into a three-dimensional object within a single shot using shaped ultrasound", says Kai Melde, postdoc in the group and first author of the study. "This can be very useful for bioprinting. The cells used there are particularly sensitive to the environment during the process", adds Peer Fischer, Professor at Heidelberg University.
Sound waves exert forces on matter - a fact that is known to any concert goer who experiences the pressure waves from a loudspeaker. Using high-frequency ultrasound, which is inaudible to the human ear, the wavelengths can be pushed below a millimeter into the microscopic realm, which is used by the researcher to manipulate very small building blocks, like biological cells.
In their previous studies Peer Fischer and colleagues showed how to form ultrasound using acoustic holograms - 3D-printed plates, which are made to encode a specific sound field. Those sound fields, they demonstrated, can be used to assemble materials into two-dimensional patterns. Based on this the scientists devised a fabrication concept.
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