Graphene-reinforced biodegradable resin composites for stereolithographic 3D printing of bone structure scaffolds

Abstract

A biodegradable UV-cured resin has been fabricated via stereolithography apparatus (SLA). The formulation consists of a commercial polyurethane resin as an oligomer, trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TEGDMA) as a reactive diluent and phenylbis (2, 4, 6-trimethylbenzoyl)-phosphine oxide (Irgacure 819) as a photoinitiator. The tensile strength of the three-dimensional (3D) printed specimens is 68 MPa, 62% higher than that of the reference specimens (produced by direct casting). The flexural strength and modulus can reach 115 MPa and 5.8 GPa, respectively. A solvent-free method is applied to fabricate graphene-reinforced nanocomposite. Porous bone structures (a jawbone with a square architecture and a sternum with a round architecture) and gyroid scaffold of graphene-reinforced nanocomposite for bone tissue engineering have been 3D printed via SLA. The UV-crosslinkable graphene-reinforced biodegradable nanocomposite using SLA 3D printing technology can potentially remove important cost barriers for personalized biological tissue engineering as compared to the traditional mould-based multistep methods.