The Production Possibility of the Antimicrobial Filaments by Co-Extrusion of the PLA Pellet with Chitosan Powder for FDM 3D Printing Technology

Abstract

The last decades have witnessed a major advancement and development in three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. In the future, the trend’s utilization of 3D printing is expected to play an important role in the biomedical field. This work presents co-extrusion of the polylactic acid (PLA), its derivatives (sPLA), and chitosan with the aim of achieving filaments for printing 3D objects, such as biomedical tools or implants. The physicochemical and antimicrobial properties were evaluated using SEM, FT-IR, DSC, instrumental mechanical test, and based on the ASTM E2149 standard, respectively. The addition of chitosan in the PLA and sPLA filaments increased their porosity and decreased density. The FT-IR analysis showed that PLA and chitosan only formed a physical mixture after extrusion. The addition of chitosan caused deterioration of the mechanical properties of filaments, especially elongation at break and Young’s modulus. The addition of chitosan to the filaments improved their ability to crystallize and provide their antimicrobial properties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Embracing Additive Manufacturing Technology through Fused Filament Fabrication for Antimicrobial with Enhanced Formulated Materials

“…FFF has been reported to be an excellent technique to fabricate small mechanical parts, providing sufficient precision, which allows rapid modifications to be made during the process itself. A simple FFF schematic is shown in Figure 1 [18]. Polymer composite materials have gained the attention of researchers worldwide in a variety of fields, from printing and packing applications to several other applications [17,[26][27][28].…”

“…Several techniques that have been commonly applied worldwide for 3D Printing include FFF, selective laser sintering (SLS), digital light processing (DLP), and stereolithography (SLA) [ 13 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Of these, FFF has been extensively used to develop medical devices.…”

“…FFF has been reported to be an excellent technique to fabricate small mechanical parts, providing sufficient precision, which allows rapid modifications to be made during the process itself. A simple FFF schematic is shown in Figure 1 [ 18 ].…”

Synthesis of Dimethyl Octyl Aminoethyl Ammonium Bromide and Preparation of Antibacterial ABS Composites for Fused Deposition Modeling

“…Mania et al blended PLA with chitosan to fabricate antibacterial printing filaments. The printed products showed satisfying antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli ), while the mechanical properties of the composites deteriorated [ 24 ]. Wang et al introduced 1-vinyl-1,2,4-triazole in the synthesis of a hydrogel, and the processability of this novel antibacterial material was confirmed by its successful 3D printing application [ 25 ].…”

A Method of Adding Binder by High-Pressure Spraying to Improve the Biomass Densification

“…Mania et al reported that the addition of chitosan to the filaments improved their ability to crystallize [ 26 ]. M.M.…”