<br/>Three dimensional (3D) printing, has become significantly more commonplace in tissue engineering, thus increasing the demand of low-modulus, high-performance, biodegradable and biocompatible polymers. Extrusion-based direct-write 3D printing (EDP) enables printing and customization of low modulus materials for applications that range from cell free printing to cell-laden bioinks that mimic natural tissue and beyond. Despite the promising applications of EDP, there is still the need for soft materials to good printability, while maintaining shape fidelity post printing. The development of new synthetic materials for 3D printing applications has been relatively slow, and only a small polymer library is available for tissue engineering. In addition, most of these polymers require high temperatures and pressure, additives, and solvent to enable printability. Herein, we present low modulus 3D printable polyester inks that enables low temperature printing without the need for solvents or additives. Shape fidelity is preserved by the introduction of physical and chemical crosslinks. These 3D printable polyester inks consisted of a saturated aliphatic side chain, a secondary amide group as the physical crosslinker and a UV-curable coumarin pendant groups as the chemical crosslinker. The combination of the two types of cross-linkers not only provides high printability and shape fidelity when same molar ratio is used (20:20), but also mechanical properties comparable to polyurethane systems. In this work the excellent mechanical properties, together with the analysis of physical and chemical ratio effects and printability criteria will be discussed.

Introduction of hydrogen bonding and chemical crosslinks enhances the shape fidelity and mechanical properties of 3D printable low modulus polyesters

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.