Three‐dimensional printing of poly(glycerol sebacate fumarate) gadodiamide‐poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate structures and characterization of mechanical properties for soft tissue applications

Bioresorbable materials have been frequently used to three‐dimensional (3D) print biomedical structures. In this study, we developed a technique to 3D print poly(glycerol sebacate fumarate) gadodiamide (Rylar)‐poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) samples and investigated their mechanical and thermal properties as a function of (PS) and ultraviolet intensity (UVI). The Young's modulus ( E ), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), failure strain ( ɛ F ), and glass transition temperature ( T g ) showed strong correlation with PS and UVI. Results showed E to be between 1.31 and 3.12 MPa, UTS between 0.07 and 0.43 MPa, and ɛ F between 7 and 20% with brittle failure. The T g was observed to lie between −54.48 and −49.10 ° C without secondary/tertiary transitions. Dominant elastic behavior was observed from the dynamic mechanical testing viscoelastic data. Testing results were used to develop a regression predictive model for E as a function of PS and UVI. The model performance was evaluated experimentally with an average absolute error of 3.62%. The E and stress‐strain response of our 3D printed samples show agreement with published data for human tracheal cartilage, and the mechanical properties were comparable to other published soft polymeric scaffolds/patches. The E′ moduli were also similar to bovine articular cartilage. We have successfully demonstrated that Rylar, a novel bioresorbable radiopaque polymer, when blended with PEGDA can be 3D printed controllably for soft tissue applications such as airway obstructions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B: 664–671, 2019.