Volumetric additive manufacturing with light is an advanced technology in diverse conventional fields. However, with the raising awareness of environmental concerns and the growing interest in biomedical applications, the safety and water solubility of the existing photoinitiators are challenged. Herein, we developed a photoinitiating system based on a blue food colorant, i.e., indigo carmine. The indigo carmine-based photoinitiating system induced a rapid photochemical reaction and photobleaching under blue and green LEDs in the alkaline medium. The unprecedented photoinitiation ability of the indigo carmine-based photoinitiating system in terms of rate of photopolymerization and the final monomer conversion was achieved under the irradiation of low-intensity light sources. Subsequently, a sophisticated 3D printing in high fidelity was carried out and a 2D seashell was designed and printed with the function of 2D–3D reversible switching. These findings demonstrated that the indigo carmine-based photoinitiating system could resolve the safety and water solubility challenges and be involved in the 3D printing of biomedical materials.

光体积增材制造是各种传统领域的先进技术。然而，随着环境问题意识的提高和对生物医学应用的兴趣日益浓厚，现有光引发剂的安全性和水溶性受到挑战。在此，我们开发了一种基于蓝色食用色素即靛蓝胭脂红的光引发系统。基于靛蓝胭脂红的光引发系统在碱性介质中的蓝色和绿色 LED 下诱导了快速的光化学反应和光漂白。在低强度光源的照射下，靛蓝胭脂红基光引发体系在光聚合速率和最终单体转化率方面具有前所未有的光引发能力。随后，进行了高保真复杂的3D打印，并设计并打印了具有2D-3D可逆切换功能的2D贝壳。这些发现表明，基于靛蓝胭脂红的光引发系统可以解决安全性和水溶性挑战，并参与生物医学材料的 3D 打印。