# Highly-Oriented Polylactic Acid Fiber Reinforced Polycaprolactone Composite Produced by Infused Fiber Mat Process for 3D Printed Tissue Engineering Technology

## TL;DR

Researchers developed a new 3D printing material combining polylactic acid and polycaprolactone to create stronger tissue engineering scaffolds.

## Contribution

A novel composite filament using a vacuum-assisted resin infusion process significantly improves the mechanical properties of 3D printed scaffolds.

## Key findings

- PLA/PCL composite filaments produced via VARI process increase Young’s modulus by 127.6% compared to conventional methods.
- Scaffolds with 11 wt% PLA content show 84.2% higher peak load and 143.3% higher stiffness than pure PCL.
- Highly oriented PLA fibers in the composite enhance mechanical performance of 3D printed tissue engineering scaffolds.

## Abstract

Three-dimensional printed polycaprolactone (PCL) tissue engineering scaffolds have drawn increasing interest from the medical industry due to their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, yet PCL’s poor mechanical performance has limited their applications. This study introduces a biocompatible and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) fiber reinforced PCL (PLA/PCL) composite as the filament for 3D printed scaffolds to significantly enhance their mechanical performance: Special-made PLA short fiber mat was infused with PCL matrix and rolled into PLA/PCL filaments through a “Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion” (VARI) process. The investigation revealed that the PLA fibers are highly oriented along the printing direction when using this filament for 3D printing due to the unique microstructure formed during the VARI process. At the same PLA fiber content, the percentage increase in Young’s modulus of the 3D printed strands using the filaments produced by the VARI process is 127.6% higher than the 3D printed strands using the filaments produced by the conventional melt blending process. The 3D printed tissue engineering scaffolds using the PLA/PCL composite filament with 11 wt% PLA fiber content also achieved an exceptional 84.2% and 143.3% increase in peak load and stiffness compared to the neat PCL counterpart.