Vat photopolymerization of ultra-porous bioactive glass foams
Francesco Baino,
Federico Gaido,
Roberta Gabrieli,
Dario Alidoost,
Alessandro Schiavi,
Mehdi Mohammadi,
Martin Schwentenwein,
Dilshat Tulyaganov,
Enrica Verné
Affiliations
Francesco Baino
Institute of Materials Physics and Engineering, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, 10129, Turin, Italy; Corresponding author.
Federico Gaido
Institute of Materials Physics and Engineering, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, 10129, Turin, Italy
Roberta Gabrieli
Institute of Materials Physics and Engineering, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, 10129, Turin, Italy
Dario Alidoost
Institute of Materials Physics and Engineering, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, 10129, Turin, Italy; J-Tech Interdepartmental Research Centre, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Turin, Italy
Alessandro Schiavi
National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM), Applied Metrology and Engineering Division, 10135, Turin, Italy
Mehdi Mohammadi
Lithoz GmbH, Vienna, Austria
Martin Schwentenwein
Lithoz GmbH, Vienna, Austria
Dilshat Tulyaganov
Department of Natural-Mathematical Sciences, Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent, Tashkent, 100095, Uzbekistan
Enrica Verné
Institute of Materials Physics and Engineering, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, 10129, Turin, Italy
The introduction of additive manufacturing technologies in the field of biomaterials science has opened new horizons for regenerative medicine. In this work, we pushed the potential of vat polymerization to the limit for fabricating ultra-porous bioactive SiO2-CaO-MgO-P2O5-CaF2-Na2O glass scaffolds with bone-like architectural characteristics. The tomographic reconstruction of an open-cell foam was used as input file to the printing system and reliably reproduced in all its exquisite details, as assessed by morphological analyses of sintered scaffolds (thickness of single struts 35 μm, exceptionally high porosity around 94 vol%, most pores with size from 500 to 900 μm). Immersion studies in simulated body fluid (SBF) revealed the apatite-forming ability (i.e., in vitro bioactivity) of the scaffolds, the surface of which started being coated by calcium phosphate after just 3 days from the beginning of the experiments. Taken together, these results show great promise for application of such scaffolds in bone defect repair.
