Differential thermal analysis of the antibacterial effect of PLA-based materials planned for 3D printing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing technologies give many new application possibilities in our everyday life. Biomedical applications benefit a lot from 3D printing. In medical applications, several devices can be easily produced or prototyped with FFF/FDM technologies, but we must minimize the contamination risk. New materials regularly appear on the market, recently specified as antibacterial, resulting from compounded silver nanoparticles. Because scientifically accurate and practical information is not available, this way, we lack information regarding mechanical and thermal stability of the printed products. In addition, these parameters are essential in the setting and optimizing the 3D printers. In our recent study, we aimed to analyze PLA, PLA-HDT as well as PLA-Ag nanocomposite in the form of additive manufacturing filament, with DTA/TG. The results showed that these composites, based on their thermal characteristics, can be suitable for 3D print biomedical devices such as orthoses, casts, medical models and also surgical guides; therefore, their further examination should be important, regarding mechanical characteristics and their possible antibacterial effect.