Study on biodegradable photocurable PCL-diacrylate/PGSA for 3D printing

Biodegradable polycaprolactone (PCL) is a popular scaffold material, and is mainly adopted in melt-and-dispense-type or sintering-type 3D printing processes. Photocurable PCL, PCL-diacrylate (PCL-DA), has been mixed with poly(ethylene glycol)-diacrylate (PEG-DA) to generate 3D scaffolds by a DLP-projected-type 3D Printing system in our earlier research. PGSA, the acrylated form of Poly(gkycerol sebacate) (PGS), is an photocurable ester and can be a candidate to replace PEG-DA in our material system. Therefore, in this research, PCL-DA and PGSA were mixed to form photocurable 3D printing scaffold material. Tensile testing, contact angle measurement, DSC, and TGA were conducted to characterize the photocured samples. Coloring approaches were applied to the transparent material system by dye (Sudan Black B, SB) and pigment (Phthalocyanine Blue, PB) to avoid overcuring in the earlier-cured layer causing dimensional inaccuracy and pore closure. The results showed that PGSA in the material system did improve the mechanical properties and hydrophilicity of photocured material compared to only PCL-DA. Both coloring materials (SB and PB) were biocompatible. Sudan Black B is recommended due to its better performance in dimensional accuracy of photocured samples and number of layers can be stacked without overcuring and pore closure.