3D printing of robust and biocompatible poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate/nano-hydroxyapatite composites continuous liquid interface production

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. B, Materials for biology and medicine Vol. 9; no. 5; pp. 1315 - 1324
• Main Authors: Deng, Xueyong, Huang, Bingxue, Hu, Rui, Chen, Liling, Tang, Yingying, Lu, Canhui, Chen, Zhenming, Zhang, Wei, Zhang, Ximu
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 15.02.2021
• ISSN: 2050-750X; 2050-7518
• DOI: 10.1039/d0tb02182b

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology with satisfactory speed and accuracy has been a powerful force in biomaterial processing. Early studies on 3D printing of biomaterials mainly focused on their biocompatibility and cellular viability while rarely attempted to produce robust specimens. Nonetheless, the biomedical applications of polymers can be severely limited by their inherently weak mechanical properties particularly in bone tissue engineering. In this study, continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) is applied to construct 3D objects of nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) filled polymeric biomaterials with complex architectures. Notably, the bioactive and osteoconductive n-HA endows the 3D prints of poly(ethyleneglycol)diacrylate (PEGDA) composites with a high compression strength of 6.5 ± 1.4 MPa, about 342% improvement over neat PEGDA. This work demonstrates the first successful attempt on CLIP 3D printing of n-HA nanocomposites, providing a feasible, cost-effective and patient-specific solution to various fields in the biomedical industry. This work demonstrates the first successful attempt on CLIP 3D printing of n-HA nanocomposites, providing a feasible, cost-effective and patient-specific solution for future bone tissue engineering.