Impact of Particle Size of Ceramic Granule Blends on Mechanical Strength and Porosity of 3D Printed Scaffolds

Materials

Sebastian Spath²  Philipp Drescher²  Hermann Seitz¹ 

[1] Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Marine Technology, University of Rostock, Justus-von-Liebig Weg 6, 18059 Rostock, Germany;

关键词: 3D printing;    scaffold;    particle size;    porosity;    mechanical strength;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ma8084720

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

3D printing is a promising method for the fabrication of scaffolds in the field of bone tissue engineering. To date, the mechanical strength of 3D printed ceramic scaffolds is not sufficient for a variety of applications in the reconstructive surgery. Mechanical strength is directly in relation with the porosity of the 3D printed scaffolds. The porosity is directly influenced by particle size and particle-size distribution of the raw material. To investigate this impact, a hydroxyapatite granule blend with a wide particle size distribution was fractioned by sieving. The specific fractions and bimodal mixtures of the sieved granule blend were used to 3D print specimens. It has been shown that an optimized arrangement of fractions with large and small particles can provide 3D printed specimens with good mechanical strength due to a higher packing density. An increase of mechanical strength can possibly expand the application area of 3D printed hydroxyapatite scaffolds.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.