Combination of thermal extrusion printing and ultrafast laser fabrication for the manufacturing of 3D composite scaffolds

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present a novel approach to manufacturing 3D microstructured composite scaolds for tissue engineeringapplications. A thermal extrusion 3D printer  a simple, low-cost tabletop device enabling rapid materializationof CAD models in plastics  was used to produce cm-scale microporous scaolds out of polylactic acid (PLA).The fabricated objects were subsequently immersed in a photosensitive monomer solution and direct laser writingtechnique (DLW) was used to re ne its inner structure by fabricating a ne mesh inside the previously producedscaold. In addition, a composite material structure out of four dierent materials fabricated via DLW ispresented. This technique, empowered by ultrafast lasers allows 3D structuring with high spatial resolution ina great variety of photosensitive materials. A composite scaold made of distinct materials and periodicitiesis acquired after the development process used to wash out non-linked monomers. Another way to modify the3D printed PLA surfaces was also demonstrated - ablation with femtosecond laser beam. Structure geometryon macro- to micro- scales could be nely tuned by combining these fabrication techniques. Such arti cial 3Dsubstrates could be used for cell growth or as biocompatible-biodegradable implants.To our best knowledge, this is the rst experimental demonstration showing the creation of composite 3Dscaolds using convenient 3D printing combined with DLW. This combination of distinct material processingtechniques enables rapid fabrication of diverse functional micro-featured and integrated devices. Hopefully, theproposed approach will nd numerous applications in the eld of tissue engineering, as well as in microelectrome-chanical systems, micro uidics, microoptics and others.Keywords: direct laser writing, multiphoton polymerization, laser ablation, thermal extrusion, fused depositionmodeling, 3D printing, composite structures, scaolds.