A TEMPLATE-BASED FABRICATION TECHNIQUE FOR SPATIALLY-DESIGNED POLYMER MICRO/NANOFIBER COMPOSITES.

This paper reports a template-based technique for the fabrication of polymer micro/nanofiber composites, exercising control over the fiber dimensions and alignment. Unlike conventional spinning-based methods of fiber production, the presented approach is based on micro-transfer molding. It is a parallel processing technique capable of producing fibers with control over both in-plane and out-of-plane geometries, in addition to packing density and layout of the fibers. Collagen has been used as a test polymer to demonstrate the concept. Hollow and solid collagen fibers with various spatial layouts have been fabricated. Produced fibers have widths ranging from 2 µm to 50 µm, and fiber thicknesses ranging from 300 nm to 3 µm. Also, three-dimensionality of the process has been demonstrated by producing in-plane serpentine fibers with designed arc lengths, out-of-plane wavy fibers, fibers with focalized particle encapsulation, and porous fibers with desired periodicity and pore sizes.