Abstract
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a biodegradable polymer suitable for fabricating porous scaffolds in bone tissue engineering. Fillers are often added into PLA matrix to fabricate composite scaffolds in order to improve the performance of pure PLA. In the present study, we fabricated PLA/316L composite scaffolds with stainless steel particle contents from 5 vol% to 15 vol% using fused filament fabrication (FFF) process. The effects on dimensions of pore and strut, surface roughness, as well as thermal, mechanical, and in-vitro degradation properties of the scaffolds were studied. The results showed that the dimensional accuracy was improved, and the surface roughness was tailored by the addition of steel powders that were dispersedly distributed on the strut surface. In addition, PLA/316L composite scaffolds exhibited a lower coefficient of thermal expansion than pure PLA, while glass transition temperature and crystalline phase transition temperature were not significantly affected by steel powder. Moreover, compressive strength and elastic modulus were enhanced when powder loading was set at 10 vol% or 15 vol%. In-vitro degradation tests showed no significant differences on degradation rates between PLA and PLA/316L composite scaffolds.
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