Additive manufacturing of hydroxyapatite bioceramic scaffolds: Dispersion, digital light processing, sintering, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility

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Hydroxyapatite (HA) bioceramic scaffolds were fabricated by using digital light processing (DLP) based additive manufacturing. Key issues on the HA bioceramic scaffolds, including dispersion, DLP fabrication, sintering, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility were discussed in detail. Firstly, the effects of dispersant dosage, solid loading, and sintering temperature were studied. The optimal dispersant dosage, solid loading, and sintering temperature were 2 wt%, 50 vol%, and 1250 °C, respectively. Then, the mechanical properties and biocompatibility of the HA bioceramic scaffolds were investigated. The DLP-prepared porous HA bioceramic scaffold was found to exhibit excellent mechanical properties and degradation behavior. From this study, DLP technique shows good potential for manufacturing HA bioceramic scaffolds.