3D printing is a highly suitable technique for the development of scaffolds for tissue engineering. The UV radiation-curable polymers have emerged as a promising biomaterials since until the date 3D bioprinting materials are mainly limited to natural polymers and an few synthetic polymers such as modified sodium alginate or chitosan, among others. However, these natural polymer-based hydrogels often do not present enough toughness to construct a complicated scaffold by 3D bioprinting. On the contrary, the synthetic polymer-based hydrogels could present tunable mechanical properties that could be modified in their synthesis. 
The UV-curing method, defined as a rapid conversion of specially formulated solventless liquid (resins) into solid by irradiation with ultraviolet light, present advantages such as fast curing at room temperature, space and energy efficiency, high-resolution patterns, and solvent-free formulations.
Among the possible resins allowed to be used as biofunctional materials, polyurethane acrylate hydrogels (PUAH) present highly interesting properties. Added to the inherited properties of the hydrogels, acrylated urethanes can potentially combine the properties of polyacrylates such as good optical properties, swelling capability and wearability with those of polyurethanes such as high abrasion resistance, toughness and tear strength .A wide range of methods exists to obtain acrylated urethane UV curable materials, being the most important the combination of a polyol with an isocyanate and the addition of an alcohol-terminated acrylate. In this study, polycaprolactone triol (PCLT), isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and two alcohol-terminated acrylates, 2-hydroxiethil methacrylate (HEA) and 2-hydroxiethil methacrylate (HEMA) are used to obtain polyurethane acrylate oligomers. Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) is used to follow their synthesis. Then, by adding monomers and photoinitiator, UV curable resins are obtained and characterized using real time FTIR, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyse (TGA), among others techniques. Finally, the influence of the acrylates on the mechanical properties are also studied.

A NEW GENERATION OF UV CURABLE POLYURETHANE HYDROGELS AS NEW 3D PRINTABLE MATERIALS FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

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