Development of HAp Reinforced Biodegradable Porous Structure Through Polymer Deposition Technology for Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

This article highlights the detailed procedure for development of hydroxyapatite (HAp) (Ca5(PO4)3(OH)) reinforced biocompatible polymer with biodegradable open porous structure for tissue engineering (TE) applications by using polymer/fused deposition modeling (FDM). In this case study HAp powder has been reinforced with biocompatible and biodegradable polymer poly lactic acid (PLA) and bioactive polymer chitosan (CS). Biocompatible and biodegradable feed stock filament of HAp reinforced with PLA and CS were prepared on twin-screw extruder (TSE) by using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array (OA) as design of experiment technique. The input parameters for this study are barrel temperature of TSE, rotational speed of screw and dead weight. The best feed stock filament has been established on the basis of melt flow index (MFI), thermal analysis by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. Finally prepared feedstock filament is ready to use on commercial open source FDM based 3D printer. For higher strength of fabricated part (in TE applications) printed with FDM, the best settings have been established with input parameters as layer thickness, deposition angle and infill density. Finally tensile specimen and flexural specimen (for 3-point bending test) were prepared on FDM and tested on universal tensile tester (UTT). The results of present case study are helpful for lab scientists for establishing proportions of reinforcement in thermoplastic composites for in house development of FDM based feed stock filament in TE applications.