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Review
. 2024 Feb 14;16(4):517.
doi: 10.3390/polym16040517.

Polyvinyl Alcohol, a Versatile Excipient for Pharmaceutical 3D Printing

Nadine Couți  1 , Alina Porfire  1 , Rareș Iovanov  1 , Andrea Gabriela Crișan  1 , Sonia Iurian  1 , Tibor Casian  1 , Ioan Tomuță  1
Affiliations
Review

Polyvinyl Alcohol, a Versatile Excipient for Pharmaceutical 3D Printing

Nadine Couți et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing in the pharmaceutical field allows rapid manufacturing of a diverse range of pharmaceutical dosage forms, including personalized items. The application of this technology in dosage form manufacturing requires the judicious selection of excipients because the selected materials must be appropriate to the working principle of each technique. Most techniques rely on the use of polymers as the main material. Among the pharmaceutically approved polymers, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is one of the most used, especially for fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology. This review summarizes the physical and chemical properties of pharmaceutical-grade PVA and its applications in the manufacturing of dosage forms, with a particular focus on those fabricated through FDM. The work provides evidence on the diversity of dosage forms created using this polymer, highlighting how formulation and processing difficulties may be overcome to get the dosage forms with a suitable design and release profile.

Keywords: 3D printing; fused deposition modeling; hot melt extrusion; pharmaceutical excipient; polyvinyl alcohol.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structure of polyvinyl alcohol.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Radical polymerization of vinyl acetate to create PVA [9].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Poly(vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene) synthesis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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