Stereolithography-Based Additive Manufacturing of High-Performance Osteoinductive Calcium Phosphate Ceramics by a Digital Light-Processing System

Abstract

Digital light processing (DLP) is one of the additive manufacturing (AM) technologies suitable for preparation of high-performance ceramics. The present study provided an optimized formula to fabricate osteoinductive calcium phosphate (CaP) ceramics with high precision and controllable three-dimensional (3D) structure. Among the four surfactants, monoalcohol ethoxylate phosphate was the best one to modify the CaP powders for preparing the photocurable slurry with high solid loading and good spreading ability. By testing the photopolymerization property of the 60 wt % solid loading slurry, the appropriate processing parameters including the slice thickness (50 μm), exposure intensity (10.14 mW/cm2), and exposure time (8 s) were set to perform the 3D printing of the ceramic green body in the DLP system. After the debinding and sintering, the final CaP ceramics were acquired. The stereomicroscope and SEM observation confirmed the high precision of the ceramics. The average compressive strength of the ceramics with 64.5% porosity reached 9.03 MPa. On only soaking in simulated body fluid for 1 day, an even layer of apatite formed on the ceramic surface. The cell culture confirmed that the ceramics could allow the good attachment, growth, and proliferation of murine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. After implantation into the dorsal muscles of beagle dogs for 3 months, abundant blood vessels and obvious ectopic bone formation were observed clearly by the histological evaluation. Therefore, with good bioactivity and osteoinductivity as well as high precision and adjustable mechanical strength, the 3D printed CaP ceramics in the DLP system could have good potential in customized bone-repairing applications.

The Influence of Microstructure on the Flexural Properties of 3D Printed Zirconia Part via Digital Light Processing Technology

“…The dispersant we used, named DisperBYK-180, is a commercial hyperdispersant based on non-polar acrylates. When used with acrylates, oleic acid shows better dispersion than stearic acid and sebacic acid [29]. Its unsaturated chain seems to have a better affinity with the double bonds of non-polar acrylates.…”

Fabrication and biological evaluation of porous β-TCP bioceramics produced using digital light processing

“…23 According to the authors, the various macropores-related structures resulted in their unique osteogenically-related capabilities. 24 For the mentioned reason, the way of controlling 3D printed bioceramics's pore structure in an accurate manner can critically enhance their biologically-related characteristics.…”

Fabrication and biological evaluation of 3D-printed calcium phosphate ceramic scaffolds with distinct macroporous geometries through digital light processing technology

“…alumina, silicon), while, there were only sporadic reports on preparation of CaP bioceramics via DLP [ 7 , 8 ]. For instance, our previous study used DLP-based SL technology to fabricate CaP bioceramics with controllable 3D structure and high accuracy through layer-by-layer photopolymerization of photocurable slurry, which was comprised of CaP powders and photosensitive resin [ 9 ].…”

“…In order to endow the slurry with both high powder solid content and good rheological property, surface modification of ceramic powders has been used to increase the dispersibility of hydrophilic ceramic powders in hydrophobic photosensitive resin [ 10 ]. Our previous study compared the effects of four surfactants, including stearic acid, oleic acid, sebacic acid and monoalcohol ethoxylate phosphate (MAEP) on the surface modification of CaP powders, suggesting that MAEP was the best one, as it resulted in the lowest slurry viscosity [ 9 ]. Therefore, in present study, MAEP was chosen as modifier to prepare the photocurable slurry.…”