The limited number of commercially available photocrosslinkable resins for stereolithography has often been considered the main limitation of this technique. In this manuscript, a photocrosslinkable poly-?-caprolactone (PCL) has been synthesized by a two-step method starting from ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ?-caprolactone. Hydroxyethyl vinyl ether (HEVE) has been used both as the initiator of ROP and as photo-curable functional group to obtain a vinyl poly-?-caprolactone (VPCL). The following reaction of VPCL with fumaryl chloride (FuCl) results in a divinyl-fumarate polycaprolactone (VPCLF). Moreover, a catalyst based on Al, instead of the most popular Tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate, has been employed to reduce the cytotoxicity of the material. VPCLF has been successfully used, in combination with N-vinyl-pyrrolidone (NVP), to fabricate 3D porous scaffolds by micro-stereolithography (?-SL) with mathematically defined architectures.
Synthesis of an UV-Curable Divinyl-Fumarate Poly-?-Caprolactone for Stereolithography Applications
Alfredo Ronca;Luigi Ambrosio
2020
Abstract
The limited number of commercially available photocrosslinkable resins for stereolithography has often been considered the main limitation of this technique. In this manuscript, a photocrosslinkable poly-?-caprolactone (PCL) has been synthesized by a two-step method starting from ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ?-caprolactone. Hydroxyethyl vinyl ether (HEVE) has been used both as the initiator of ROP and as photo-curable functional group to obtain a vinyl poly-?-caprolactone (VPCL). The following reaction of VPCL with fumaryl chloride (FuCl) results in a divinyl-fumarate polycaprolactone (VPCLF). Moreover, a catalyst based on Al, instead of the most popular Tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate, has been employed to reduce the cytotoxicity of the material. VPCLF has been successfully used, in combination with N-vinyl-pyrrolidone (NVP), to fabricate 3D porous scaffolds by micro-stereolithography (?-SL) with mathematically defined architectures.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
