Bioinspired Structural Hierarchy within Macroscopic Volumes of Synthetic Composites

摘要: A key challenge in developing bioinspired composites is the fabrication of well-defined 3D hierarchical structures ranging from nano to macroscale. Herein, development a synthetic polymer-apatite composite realized by integrating bottom-up self-assembly and additive manufacturing (AM) described. The resulting exhibits structure over its macroscopic volume. assembled manner, where periodic nanoscale assemblies organic micellar fibrils inorganic apatite nanocrystals are organized as bundles mineralized microstructures. These microstructural preferentially oriented throughout volume material via extrusion based AM. obtained structural hierarchy investigated using electron microscopy small angle X-ray scattering tensor tomography correlated anisotropy observed biological tissues such bone bone-cartilage interface. This work demonstrates possibility form with volume, which crucial for mechanically optimized materials applications osteochondral implants.