CD Laboratory for Advanced Polymers for Biomaterials and 3D Printing

This CD Laboratory is concerned with two key research issues in oral and maxillofacial surgery: materials for 3D printing of implants, and bone adhesives, which are particularly needed for comminuted fractures.

Over the last decade, great progress has been made in the field of 3D printed implants. The key features of such implants are the ability to print them individually on the basis of computer tomography images of the patient and the fact that they are merely a scaffold that is gradually replaced by the body's own bone material and dissolves at the same time. The prerequisites for these positions are that the materials used and their degradation products are non-toxic, that they are suitable for 3D printing, that the resulting implants have sufficient stability but also porosity, and that nutrient solutions with growth factors can be introduced into them. These enable vascularisation, i.e. the growth of blood vessels through the newly created bone structures, and the optimal adhesion and growth of bone cells. Vinyl esters, which form polymers during 3D printing with the help of light-sensitive photoinitiators, have proven to be promising starting materials. Both the individual components and the final constructs are analysed from a bio-medical and materials science perspective in this CD Laboratory.

Bone adhesives are used where bone fixation with plates and screws is not possible, e.g. in comminuted fractures. Maximum adhesion combined with porosity and biodegradability are the main properties required. Here too, the adhesive material must degrade at the same rate as the body's own bone regeneration.

In both areas, fundamental material studies are being carried out to answer open scientific questions, such as boundary effects, layer inhomogeneity or delamination, i.e. the detachment of layers in 3D printed objects or the interaction of adhesion and cohesion in bone adhesives.