Alexa Buck

Bachelor student

Development and characterization of bioactive glass/polymer filaments for 3D printing

 

Supervisors: Marcela Arango-Ospina, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Since the development of 45S5 bioactive glass, known as the first bioactive resorbable glass, many different compositions have been explored over the years [1, 2]. Those glass compositions can be used to create scaffolds for bone tissue engineering [3]. Scaffolds need to fulfill various requirements to support the complex biomechanical and biological system of bone tissue. They need to be biocompatible, bioresorbable and exhibit a certain pore size while retaining their mechanical properties [3]. In order to improve the mechanical properties of bioactive glass-based scaffolds, the aim of this bachelor thesis is to create glass-polymer filaments to be used in 3D printing of scaffolds via fused deposition modeling.

[1] Jones, J.R. et al., Optimising bioactive glass scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Biomaterials 27 (2006) 964–973.

[2] Balasubramanian, P., et al., Boron-containing bioactive glasses in bone and soft tissue engineering. J. Europ. Ceram. Soc. 38 (2018) 855-869.

[3] Gerhardt, L. C., Boccaccini, A. R., Bioactive Glass and Glass-Ceramic Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering. Materials 3 (2010) 3867-3910.