Extrusion printing of Alginate/Laponite nanocomposite hydrogels scaffolds: influence of rheological properties and printing parameters

Resumo

Hydrogels are polymeric materials extensively used in biomedical applications. One important application is as scaffolds for tissue engineering, due to their high biocompatibility and the capability to provide viable microenvironment for growth and proliferation of cells. Among the main techniques to obtain hydrogel scaffolds is three-dimensional printing. However, hydrogel extrusion printing is challenging, since the material must present suitable rheological properties in order to confer mechanical stability and adequate shape fidelity in the printed structure. In this work, nanocomposite hydrogels of the system alginate/Laponite in aqueous dispersion was studied aiming extrusion printing. An extrusion printing equipment was built and tested for hydrogel printing. Rheological behavior and printing parameters were studied in order to obtain scaffolds with adequate printing fidelity.