Development of 3D printable inks for wound dressing applications

it is planned to devise 3D printable PLA-PEG gels hosting st EOs (called emulgels). The primary objective of this research is to develop innovative methods to manufacture multifunctional 3D-printed hydrogels that can be applied to wound treatments. The challenges include stabilization of EO droplet in gel media along with engineering the rheological properties of emulgels for high fidelity 3D printing. Indeed, the novel amphiphilic PLA-PEG copolymer synthesized in our lab conjugated with Prof. Kamakar’s group solid background in rheology and 3D printing make the accomplishment of this interdisciplinary and urgently needed project feasible. Thus, in the first step, the molecular structure of the PLA-PEG will be fine-tuned for stabilization of EO droplets in the bulk of gels. Afterwards, the 3D printintability of the emulgels will be tuned by adjusting different factors including polymer and EO concentrations. In the final step, the optimized emulgel will be 3D printed with different patterns and the correlation between the printing pattern and EO release will be studied.

Faculty Supervisor:

Milad Kamkar

Student:

Partner:

Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíne

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Advanced Manufacturing; Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: