Filament extrusion of bioresorbable PDLGA for additive manufacturing utilising diatom biosilica to inhibit process-induced thermal degradation

Bone scaffolds are often fabricated by initially producing custom-made filaments twin-screw extruder and subsequently fabricating into 3D using fused deposition modelling. This study aims to directly compare the effect of two alternative silica-rich filler materials on thermo-mechanical properties such after extrusion printing. Poly (DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PDLGA) was blended with either 45S5 Bioglass (5 wt %) or Biosilica (1 5 wt%) isolated from Cyclotella meneghiniana a freshwater diatom were tested. Diatom-PDLGA found have similar mechanical strength ductility pure-PDLGA, whereas Bioglass-PDLGA induce more brittle behaviour. also lowest toughness in terms energy absorption failure. The TGA results suggested that significant thermal degradation both had occurred as result processing. However, biosilica inhibit PDLGA. Furthermore, evidence agglomeration particles during processing filaments. Overall, be promising candidate bone additive printed PDLGA scaffolds, caused some potentially detrimental effects performance.