Thermal, Mechanical and Biocompatibility Analyses of Photochemically Polymerized PEGDA250 for Photopolymerization-Based Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

Novel fabrication techniques based on photopolymerization enable the preparation of complex multi-material constructs for biomedical applications. This requires an understanding of the influence of the used reaction components on the properties of the generated copolymers. The identification of fundamental characteristics of these copolymers is necessary to evaluate their potential for biomaterial applications. Additionally, knowledge of the properties of the starting materials enables subsequent tailoring of the biomaterials to meet individual implantation needs. In our study, we have analyzed the biological, chemical, mechanical and thermal properties of photopolymerized poly(ethyleneglycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) and specific copolymers with different photoinitiator (PI) concentrations before and after applying a post treatment washing process. As comonomers, 1,3-butanediol diacrylate, pentaerythritol triacrylate and pentaerythritol tetraacrylate were used. The in vitro studies confirm the biocompatibility of all investigated copolymers. Uniaxial tensile tests show significantly lower tensile strength (82% decrease) and elongation at break (76% decrease) values for washed samples. Altered tensile strength is also observed for different PI concentrations: on average, 6.2 MPa for 1.25% PI and 3.1 MPa for 0.5% PI. The addition of comonomers lowers elongation at break on average by 45%. Moreover, our observations show glass transition temperatures (Tg) ranging from 27 °C to 56 °C, which significantly increase with higher comonomer content. These results confirm the ability to generate biocompatible PEGDA copolymers with specific thermal and mechanical properties. These can be considered as resins for various additive manufacturing-based applications to obtain personalized medical devices, such as drug delivery systems (DDS). Therefore, our study has advanced the understanding of PEGDA multi-materials and will contribute to the future development of tools ensuring safe and effective individual therapy for patients.

Toward Tunable Protein‐Driven Hydrogel Lens

“…PEGDA with low molecular weight, like PEGDA700, possesses a lower viscosity than high molecular‐weight PEGDA, such as PEGDA 5000 and PEGDA 10 000, resulting in improved ease of handling and processing. Furthermore, low molecular weight PEGDA exhibits a moderate swelling behavior, [ 37 ] which has a minimal impact on the functioning of the bilayer actuating system. Therefore, we employed the aza‐Michael addition reaction between the lysine residues on the BSA surface and the acrylate of PEGDA700 to generate BSA‐PEGDA complexes ( Figure a).…”

Visible Light 3D Printing of High-Resolution Superelastic Microlattices of Poly(ethylene glycol) Diacrylate/Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites via Continuous Liquid Interface Production

“…PEGDA was selected as the photocurable resin in the CLIP ink due to its desirable biocompatibility and excellent processability when it cross-links to form the polymer network. , Whereas GO in the ink had multiple functions. On the one hand, it could reinforce PEGDA.…”

Digital Manufacturing of Functional Ready‐to‐Use Microfluidic Systems

“…Poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate (PEGDA) with a molecular weight of 250 (PEGDA-250) has emerged as a popular material for the 3D printing of microfluidics devices. [16,17] While PEGDA was initially used for creating "active" microfluidic devices that rely on external peripherals, [16,17] more recently, DLP printing has been employed to fabricate capillaric circuits (CCs). [11,18] CCs are capillary microfluidics assembled from individual capillaric elements that structurally encode liquid handling algorithms.…”