Programmable micropatterning of nanofibers for functional tissue engineering

This paper reports programmable micropatterning of electrospun nanofibrous materials using micropatterned collecting chips that consist of independently programmable microelectrodes. By regulating the local electrical field using activated and floating electrodes, the collecting chip allows creating the pattern of electrospun fibrous microstructures with controllable local orientation. This work provides a simple yet highly reliable way to produce micro/nanostructures of polymer nanofibers in a cost effective manner. It has a great potential in creating functional tissue engineered scaffolds with morphological and functional similarities with natural tissues, and can also be used as filtering substrates in microdevices with designed performance for on-chip biochemical analysis.