Center for Advanced Functional Nanorobots, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technická 5, Prague 6, 16628, Czech Republic.
Chem Soc Rev. 2021 Mar 1;50(4):2794-2838. doi: 10.1039/d0cs01062f.
3D printing (also called "additive manufacturing" or "rapid prototyping") is able to translate computer-aided and designed virtual 3D models into 3D tangible constructs/objects through a layer-by-layer deposition approach. Since its introduction, 3D printing has aroused enormous interest among researchers and engineers to understand the fabrication process and composition-structure-property correlation of printed 3D objects and unleash its great potential for application in a variety of industrial sectors. Because of its unique technological advantages, 3D printing can definitely benefit the field of microrobotics and advance the design and development of functional microrobots in a customized manner. This review aims to present a generic overview of 3D printing for functional microrobots. The most applicable 3D printing techniques, with a focus on laser-based printing, are introduced for the 3D microfabrication of microrobots. 3D-printable materials for fabricating microrobots are reviewed in detail, including photopolymers, photo-crosslinkable hydrogels, and cell-laden hydrogels. The representative applications of 3D-printed microrobots with rational designs heretofore give evidence of how these printed microrobots are being exploited in the medical, environmental, and other relevant fields. A future outlook on the 3D printing of microrobots is also provided.
3D 打印（也称为“增材制造”或“快速原型制作”）能够通过逐层沉积的方法将计算机辅助和设计的虚拟 3D 模型转化为 3D 有形结构/物体。自问世以来，3D 打印引起了研究人员和工程师的极大兴趣，他们希望了解打印 3D 物体的制造过程和组成-结构-性能关系，并释放其在各种工业领域应用的巨大潜力。由于其独特的技术优势，3D 打印肯定会有益于微机器人领域，并以定制的方式推进功能微机器人的设计和开发。本综述旨在对功能微机器人的 3D 打印进行一般性概述。介绍了最适用的 3D 打印技术，重点是基于激光的打印，用于微机器人的 3D 微制造。详细回顾了用于制造微机器人的 3D 可打印材料，包括光聚合物、光交联水凝胶和细胞负载水凝胶。迄今为止，具有合理设计的 3D 打印微机器人的代表性应用证明了这些打印微机器人如何在医学、环境和其他相关领域得到利用。还提供了对微机器人 3D 打印的未来展望。
