Nanoprinting holds promise for nerve regeneration

The advance, made at EPFL's Laboratory of Photonic Materials and Fibre Devices, has been published in Advanced Functional Materials.

According to EPFL, the imprinted designs could be used to impart certain optical effects on a fibre or make it water-resistant. They could also guide stem-cell growth in textured fibre channels or be used to break down the fibre at a specific location and point in time in order to release drugs as part of a smart bandage.

To make their nanometric imprints, the researchers began with a technique called thermal drawing, which is the method used to fabricate optical fibres.

Thermal drawing involves imprinting millimetre-sized patterns on a preform, which is a macroscopic version of the target fibre. The imprinted preform is heated and stretched into a long, thin fibre and allowed to harden.

Stretching causes the pattern to shrink while maintaining its proportions and position, but the method is flawed because the pattern does not remain intact below the micrometre scale.