3-D printing of chitosan-calcium phosphate inks: rheology, interactions and characterization

Silvia Stella Ramirez Caballero (1, 2) , Eduardo Saiz (3) , Alexandra Montembault (2) , Solene Tadier (1) , Eric Maire (1) , Laurent David (2) , Thierry Delair (2) , Laurent Gremillard (1)

1 MATEIS - Matériaux, ingénierie et science [Villeurbanne]
2 IMP-LMPB - Ingénierie des Matériaux Polymères - Laboratoire des Matériaux Polymères et des Biomatériaux
3 Imperial College London

Bone substitute fabrication is of interest to meet the worldwide incidence of bone disorders. Physical chitosan hydrogels with intertwined apatite particles were chosen to meet the bio-physical and mechanical properties required by a potential bone substitute. A set up for 3-D printing by robocasting was found adequate to fabricate scaffolds. Inks consisted of suspensions of calcium phosphate particles in chitosan acidic aqueous solution. The inks are shear-thinning and consist of a suspension of dispersed platelet aggregates of dicalcium phosphate dihydrate in a continuous chitosan phase. The rheological properties of the inks were studied, including their shear-thinning characteristics and yield stress. Scaffolds were printed in basic water/ethanol baths to induce transformation of chitosan-calcium phosphates suspension into physical hydrogel of chitosan mineralized with apatite. Scaffolds consisted of a chitosan polymeric matrix intertwined with poorly crystalline apatite particles. Results indicate that ink rheological properties could be tuned by controlling ink composition: in particular, more printable inks are obtained with higher chitosan concentration (0.19 mol·L−1).

Domaines: Matériaux

Silvia Stella Ramirez Caballero, Eduardo Saiz, Alexandra Montembault, Solene Tadier, Eric Maire, et al.. 3-D printing of chitosan-calcium phosphate inks: rheology, interactions and characterization. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, 2019, 30 (1), ⟨10.1007/s10856-018-6201-y⟩. ⟨hal-02115186⟩