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Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Characterizing Dissipative Elastic Metamaterials Produced by Additive Manufacturing
Published on: June 28, 2024
Rheological Characterization of Biomaterials Directs Additive Manufacturing of Strontium-Substituted Bioactive
Naomi C Paxton1, Jiongyu Ren1, Madison J Ainsworth1
1Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), 60 Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, QLD, 4059, Australia.
Abstract:
Additive manufacturing via melt electrowriting (MEW) can create ordered microfiber scaffolds relevant for bone tissue engineering; however, there remain limitations in the adoption of new printing materials, especially in MEW of biomaterials. For example, while promising composite formulations of polycaprolactone with strontium-substituted bioactive glass have been processed into large or disordered fibres, from what is known, biologically-relevant concentrations (>10 wt%) have never been printed into ordered microfibers using MEW. In this study, rheological characterization is used in combination with a predictive mathematical model to optimize biomaterial formulations and MEW conditions required to extrude various PCL and PCL/SrBG biomaterials to create ordered scaffolds. Previously, MEW printing of PCL/SrBG composites with 33 wt% glass required unachievable extrusion pressures. The composite formulation is modified using an evaporable solvent to reduce viscosity 100-fold to fall within the predicted MEW pressure, temperature, and voltage tolerances, which enabled printing. This study reports the first fabrication of reproducible, ordered high-content bioactive glass microfiber scaffolds by applying predictive modeling.
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