Microfluidic Printing of Slippery Textiles for Medical Drainage around Wounds

Abstract

Surface materials with specific wettability play significant roles in existing fields from environmental protection to biomedicine. Here, a 3D droplet transport microfiber textile with slippery liquid-infused porous surface is presented for medical drainage around wounds. The textile is fabricated by using a simple capillary microfluidic printing method to continuously spin polyurethane microfibers with liquid paraffin-infused porous surface and print them into a 3D-structure. Benefiting from the specific surface porous structure and oil encapsulation of the microfibers, aqueous droplets could be nondestructively and rapidly transported not only in simple single, double or multiple microfiber systems, but also in the microfibers composed stereoscopic textile through the microfluidic 3D printing. Based on this feature, it is demonstrated that the 3D slippery microfiber textile coupled with a vacuum sealing drainage therapy could significantly enhance the wound exudation drainage efficiency, reduce tissue injury, and prolong the effective service life in versatile wounds management. Thus, it is believed that the slippery microfiber textiles have potential for clinical applications.