Additive Manufacturing of a Photo-Cross-Linkable Polymer via Direct Melt Electrospinning Writing for Producing High Strength Structures

Melt electrospinning writing (MEW) is an emerging additive manufacturing technique that enables the design and fabrication of micrometer-thin fibrous scaffolds made of biocompatible and biodegradable polymers. By using a computer-aided deposition process, a unique control over pore size and interconnectivity of the resulting scaffolds is achieved, features highly interesting for tissue engineering applications. However, MEW has been mainly used to process low melting point thermoplastics such as poly(epsilon-caprolactone). Since this polymer exhibits creep and a reduction in modulus upon hydration, we manufactured scaffolds of poly(L-lactide-co-epsilon-caprolactone-co-acryloyl carbonate) (poly(LLA-epsilon-CL-AC)), a photo-cross-linkable and biodegradable polymer, for the first time. We show that the stiffness of the scaffolds increases significantly (up to similar to 10-fold) after cross-linking by UV irradiation at room temperature, compared with un-cross-linked microfiber scaffolds. The preservation of stiffness and high average fiber modulus (370 +/- 166 MPa) within the cross-linked hydrated scaffolds upon repetitive loading (10% strain at 1 Hz up to 200,000 cycles) suggests that the prepared scaffolds may be of potential interest for soft connective tissue engineering applications. Moreover, the approach can be readily adapted through manipulation of polymer properties and scaffold geometry to prepare structures with mechanical properties suitable for other tissue engineering applications.