3D Printing of Photocurable Cellulose Nanocrystal Composite for Fabrication of Complex Architectures via Stereolithography

Abstract

The advantages of 3D printing on cost, speed, accuracy, and flexibility have attracted several new applications in various industries especially in the field of medicine where customized solutions are highly demanded. Although this modern fabrication technique offers several benefits, it also poses critical challenges in materials development suitable for industry use. Proliferation of polymers in biomedical application has been severely limited by their inherently weak mechanical properties despite their other excellent attributes. Earlier works on 3D printing of polymers focus mainly on biocompatibility and cellular viability and lack a close attention to produce robust specimens. Prized for superior mechanical strength and inherent stiffness, cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) from abaca plant is incorporated to provide the necessary toughness for 3D printable biopolymer. Hence, this work demonstrates 3D printing of CNC-filled biomaterial with significant improvement in mechanical and surface properties. These findings may potentially pave the way for an alternative option in providing innovative and cost-effective patient-specific solutions to various fields in medical industry. To the best of our knowledge, this work presents the first successful demonstration of 3D printing of CNC nanocomposite hydrogel via stereolithography (SL) forming a complex architecture with enhanced material properties potentially suited for tissue engineering.

CelloMOF: Nanocellulose Enabled 3D Printing of Metal–Organic Frameworks

“…The fabrication of nanocellulose‐based materials using 3D printing for complex structures has potential for economic large‐scale processing. 3D printing of nanocellulose has been reported using several methods, including matrix‐assisted 3D printing, direct ink writing, and stereolithography . Printed cellulose has advanced applications such as printed electronics, biomedical devices, energy storage, construction, separations, cosmetic, and food applications .…”

Facile Preparation of Photocurable Siloxane Composite for 3D Printing

“…Several papers have reported the use of SLA for fabrication of complex structures based on methacrylate oligomers . However, most of these works focus on complicated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)‐based methacrylate and methacrylate nanocomposite oligomer, which require complex synthesis to tune the thermal, mechanical, and surface properties of the resulting 3D‐printed material . Hence, there is a need to develop a facile and robust approach to manipulating properties of the final product by simply adding chemically compatible additive with contrasting properties to the commercially available methacrylate‐based resin.…”

Engineered 3D Polymer and Hydrogel Microenvironments for Cell Culture Applications

“…For light-assisted printing, cellulose has been mainly used as a filler and reinforcement material to stiffen and strengthen hydrogels and soft polymers. PEGDA structures reinforced with nano-cellulose crystals have been printed via SLA [273,274] with good shape fidelity, mechanical strength (tensile strength increase from 0.6 to 1.2 MPa with the addition of 0.3 wt% of nano-cellulose), and surface wettability [273]. There have been a number of recent reviews specifically focused on the use of nano-cellulose for additive manufacturing of scaffolds in tissue engineering and cell culturing [275][276][277][278][279].…”