Ali Fawad, Al Rashid Ans, Kalva Sumama Nuthana, Koç Muammer
Division of Sustainable Development, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation, Doha 34110, Qatar.
Materials (Basel). 2023 Sep 30;16(19):6506. doi: 10.3390/ma16196506.
Magnesium (Mg)/Polylactic acid (PLA) composites are promising materials for bone regeneration and tissue engineering applications. PLA is a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer that can be easily processed into various shapes and structures, such as scaffolds, films, and fibers, but has low biodegradability. Mg is a biocompatible metal that has been proven to have good biodegradability and osteoconductivity, which makes it suitable for bone tissue engineering. In this study, we prepared and characterized a Mg/PLA composite as a potential material for direct ink writing (DIW) in 3D printing. The results showed that the addition of Mg has a significant impact on PLA's thermal and structural properties and has also significantly increased the degradation of PLA. XRD was used to determine the degree of crystallinity in the PLA/Mg composite, which provides insight into its thermal stability and degradation behavior. The crystallization temperature of PLA increased from 168 to 172 °C for a 15 wt% Mg incorporation, and the melting temperature reduced from 333 °C to 285 °C. The surface morphology and composition of these films were analyzed with SEM. The films with 5 wt% of Mg particles displayed the best-ordered honeycomb structure in their film form. Such structures are considered to affect the mechanical, biological and heat/mass transfer properties of the Mg/PLA composites and products. Finally, the composite ink was used as a feed for direct ink writing in 3D printing, and the preliminary 3D printing experiments were successful in resulting in dimensionally and structurally integral scaffold samples. The shape fidelity was not very good, and some research is needed to improve the rheological properties of the ink for DIW 3D printing.
镁（Mg）/聚乳酸（PLA）复合材料是用于骨再生和组织工程应用的有前景的材料。PLA是一种可生物降解且生物相容的聚合物，能够容易地加工成各种形状和结构，如支架、薄膜和纤维，但具有低生物降解性。Mg是一种生物相容的金属，已被证明具有良好的生物降解性和骨传导性，这使其适用于骨组织工程。在本研究中，我们制备并表征了一种Mg/PLA复合材料，作为3D打印中直接墨水书写（DIW）的潜在材料。结果表明，Mg的添加对PLA的热性能和结构性能有显著影响，并且还显著增加了PLA的降解。XRD用于测定PLA/Mg复合材料中的结晶度，这有助于深入了解其热稳定性和降解行为。对于掺入15 wt% Mg的情况，PLA的结晶温度从168℃升高到172℃，而熔点从333℃降低到285℃。用SEM分析了这些薄膜的表面形态和组成。含有5 wt% Mg颗粒的薄膜在其薄膜形式中呈现出最有序的蜂窝结构。这种结构被认为会影响Mg/PLA复合材料及产品的力学、生物学和热/质量传递性能。最后，将复合墨水用作3D打印中直接墨水书写的原料，初步的3D打印实验成功地得到了尺寸和结构完整的支架样品。形状保真度不是很好，需要进行一些研究来改善用于DIW 3D打印的墨水的流变性能。
