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Review
. 2017 Dec 24;5(1):2.
doi: 10.3390/bioengineering5010002.

Recent Advances in 3D Printing of Aliphatic Polyesters

Ioana Chiulan  1 , Adriana Nicoleta Frone  2 , Călin Brandabur  3 , Denis Mihaela Panaitescu  4
Affiliations
Review

Recent Advances in 3D Printing of Aliphatic Polyesters

Ioana Chiulan et al. Bioengineering (Basel). .

Abstract

3D printing represents a valuable alternative to traditional processing methods, clearly demonstrated by the promising results obtained in the manufacture of various products, such as scaffolds for regenerative medicine, artificial tissues and organs, electronics, components for the automotive industry, art objects and so on. This revolutionary technique showed unique capabilities for fabricating complex structures, with precisely controlled physical characteristics, facile tunable mechanical properties, biological functionality and easily customizable architecture. In this paper, we provide an overview of the main 3D-printing technologies currently employed in the case of poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), two of the most important classes of thermoplastic aliphatic polyesters. Moreover, a short presentation of the main 3D-printing methods is briefly discussed. Both PLA and PHA, in the form of filaments or powder, proved to be suitable for the fabrication of artificial tissue or scaffolds for bone regeneration. The processability of PLA and PHB blends and composites fabricated through different 3D-printing techniques, their final characteristics and targeted applications in bioengineering are thoroughly reviewed.

Keywords: 3D printing; aliphatic polyesters; polyhydroxyalkanoates; polylactic acid; scaffolds; tissue engineering.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
3D-printing techniques employed for PLA and PHA.
Figure 2
Figure 2
FDM schematic of the bioprinting of tissue and organs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Chemical structures of PLA (a), PHB (b) and PHV (c).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Topology optimization process of designed prosthetic foot. Reproduced with permission from [42].
Figure 5
Figure 5
PLA/HA nanocomposites by FDM 3D printer. Reproduced with permission from [48].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Sintered PHB using SLS containing pores of 1 mm in diameter [66].
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Sintered Ca–P/PHBV nanocomposite porous structures based on the following models: salamanders, elevated icosidodecahedron and snarl (from left to right) (b) three-dimensional model of a human proximal femoral condyle reconstructed from CT images and then processed into porous scaffold using cubic cells; (c) sintered Ca–P/PHBV nanocomposite proximal femoral condyle scaffold. Scale bar, 1 cm. Reproduced with permission from [68].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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