| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T22: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
3D Printing of Biomaterials and Devices
|
| Presentation Title |
Solvent Cast 3D Printing with Different Molecular Weight Polymers |
| Author(s) |
Tyler French, John W Tolbert, Lesley W Chow |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Tyler French |
| Abstract Scope |
Solvent-cast 3D-printing (SCP) is a novel technique for fabricating high-resolution polymeric biomaterial scaffolds. Inks contain a polymer dissolved in a volatile solvent, which evaporates upon extrusion to leave behind a solid polymer filament. The goal of this work centers on characterizing how polymer molecular weight affects the mechanical properties of SCP scaffolds. Here, different molecular weights of poly(caprolactone) (80 kDa and 25 kDa) were co-dissolved in hexafluoroisopropanol at three respective ratios: 100:0, 90:10, and 80:20. Viscosity was measured using parallel plate rheology and matched to a set of known printing parameters. Filament diameters were measured using scanning electron microscopy images to show similar filament morphology and scaffold architectures across all inks. Tensile testing revealed that increasing 25 kDa PCL content correlated with decreasing filament stiffness. These data demonstrate how we can modify mechanical properties independently of scaffold architecture to investigate cell response to well-defined physical properties. |