Time-resolved study of droplet formation process during inkjetting of alginate solution

Organ printing offers a great potential for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) living organs by precisely layer-by-layer placing various tissue spheroids. Such fabricated organs may replace some damaged or injured human organs, emerging as a promising solution to the problem of organ donor shortage. As one of the key enabling technologies for organ printing, inkjetting has been received much attention recently. It is of great importance to understand the jetting and droplet formation processes during the inkjetting of typical biomaterials such as alginate solution. The jetting behavior and breakup time during alginate inkjetting have been studied using a time-resolved approach, and different pinch-off behaviors are classified. The resulting knowledge will help better promote the inkjetting-based organ printing technology.