Sika supports the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS) and is sponsoring the DPCI PhD Student Award in the area of polymers, colloids, and interfaces within Switzerland.
3D Printing of Load Bearing Granular Hydrogels
This year, the winner of the DPCI PhD Student Award 2023 is Matteo Hirsch (EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland). The award was given for his work on «3D printing of living structural biocomposites», in specific about 3D printing of load bearing granular hydrogels, which can potentially be used in soft robotics, for sensing and with additional work also in orthopedics. This work was awarded based on its scientific quality and originality.
Matteo Hirsch has produced a (3D) printable mass (jammed emulsion) which also contains a bacterium. When the 3D printed article is stored in a specific solution, the bacterium produces CaCO3 and "mineralizes" the printed article. A mineral content of up to 93% has been achieved. The result is then a mineral composite bound by a small amout of organic material, analogous to the shell of shellfish, etc. This structure combines high strength and toughness. Copying this has been a goal of materials science for over 20 years. Hirsch has now shown a further way to this material.
Hirsch envisages this system to have the potential to be used in art restoration, serve as artificial corals to help the regeneration of marine reefs, and, with additional work, might also allow the reparation of broken or partially disintegrated natural mineral-based materials such as certain parts of bones.
About Matteo Hirsch
Matteo Hirsch earned a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering and a master's degree in nanotechnology at Politecnico di Torino (PoliTO). He obtained his PhD on 3D printing of load-bearing granular hydrogels and their mechanical reinforcement by targeted mineralization. The PhD was carried out at the Institute of Materials of EPFL. Matteo is currently a postdoctoral researcher at EPFL working on sustainable materials.
The jury for the selection of the winning work included:
Athina Anastasaki, ETH Zurich; Christoph Weder, University Fribourg; Matthias Gössi, Sika, and Christof Brändli, Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW.
The Swiss Chemical Society (SCS) represents chemists and scientists from chemistry-related fields in national and international organizations.