Fabrication of bespoke nasal septal scaffolds

Highlights: • Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing of polymeric nasal septal scaffolds was performed. • A special EHD desktop-printer with replication rapid prototyping technology was used. • Polymer concentration was varied to create three distinct scaffold architectures. • Nanomechanical mapping was used to assess scaffold deformation and properties. An electrohydrodynamic printer designed and constructed in our laboratory was used to fabricate polycaprolactone nasal septal scaffolds. Three different polymer concentrations (15 wt.%, 18 wt.% and 23 wt.%) were used. The generated scaffolds, each with a unique architecture, were evaluated using PeakForce Quantitative Nanomechanical Mapping (QNM) Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to measure Young's modulus using the Dejaguin–Müller–Toporov (DMT) model. In addition, this allowed estimation of adhesion forces, deformation and dissipation energy of the scaffolds. The degree of crystallinity and purity of the polymer in the scaffolds were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.