Antioxidant PLA Composites Containing Lignin for 3D Printing Applications: A Potential Material for Healthcare Applications

Abstract

Lignin (LIG) is a natural biopolymer with well-known antioxidant capabilities. Accordingly, in the present work, a method to combine LIG with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) for fused filament fabrication applications (FFF) is proposed. For this purpose, PLA pellets were successfully coated with LIG powder and a biocompatible oil (castor oil). The resulting pellets were placed into an extruder at 200 °C. The resulting PLA filaments contained LIG loadings ranging from 0% to 3% (w/w). The obtained filaments were successfully used for FFF applications. The LIG content affected the mechanical and surface properties of the overall material. The inclusion of LIG yielded materials with lower resistance to fracture and higher wettabilities. Moreover, the resulting 3D printed materials showed antioxidant capabilities. By using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method, the materials were capable of reducing the concentration of this compound up to ca. 80% in 5 h. This radical scavenging activity could be potentially beneficial for healthcare applications, especially for wound care. Accordingly, PLA/LIG were used to design meshes with different designs for wound dressing purposes. A wound healing model compound, curcumin (CUR), was applied in the surface of the mesh and its diffusion was studied. It was observed that the dimensions of the meshes affected the permeation rate of CUR. Accordingly, the design of the mesh could be modified according to the patient’s needs.

3D Printing of Drug-Loaded Thermoplastic Polyurethane Meshes: A Potential Material for Soft Tissue Reinforcement in Vaginal Surgery

“…These materials include PLA, PP or nylon. PLA has been extensively used for biomedical applications and for 3D printing applications [18][19][20]. PLA is one of the most widely used materials for 3D printing (specifically for fused deposition modelling) [20,21].…”

“…The flexibility of 3D printing also allows to combine polymeric materials with drugs to prepare drug eluting devices [14,19,22]. This is extremely useful for implantable devices that have a relatively high risk of infection [14,19,23]. If the device is loaded with antibiotics this will prevent bacterial colonisation of its surface preventing infections [14,19].…”

“…This is extremely useful for implantable devices that have a relatively high risk of infection [14,19,23]. If the device is loaded with antibiotics this will prevent bacterial colonisation of its surface preventing infections [14,19]. There are a wide variety of techniques within 3D printing technology [16].…”

3D Printing of Pharmaceuticals and Drug Delivery Devices

“…The combination of the mesh with a soluble PVA film further delayed the release rate. Accordingly to this study, PLA-LIG filament can be used to print personalised meshes for wound dressing applications [7].…”

Vegetable Additives in Food Packaging Polymeric Materials

“…In addition, lignin plays an important part in antioxidant properties as a stabilizer because the phenolic hydroxyl groups can scavenge free radicals [93]. The antioxidant behavior of lignin stems from its inherent hindered phenolic structure, which facilitates lignin to work as a free radical scavenger [94]. For example, addition of 2.5 wt % of de-polymerized kraft lignin (DKL) or 5 wt % of de-polymerized hydrolysis lignin (DHL) to polyethylene (PE) attained the same level of antioxidant activity as the addition of 0.5 wt % of Irganox 1010 (a phenolic antioxidant-pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate).…”