Resinas fotopolimerizáveis ecológicas para fabrico aditivo de biomateriais cerâmicos para aplicações médico-dentárias

The idea behind ECORESIN is driven by the current lack of green, eco-friendly and sustainable ceramic-based feedstock for vat photopolymerization processes, having in mind the opportunity to engineer biodevices in a more effective way for a biomedical area, where customization is vital (dental area). DLP/SLA is selected as the fabrication technology since it is able to construct small-medium size components with high complexity, with small details and unforeseen resolution, also essential requirements for the applications in view. So, ECORESIN aims to develop an innovative concept to fabricate ceramic-based biomaterials for different applications in dentistry field. The main goal is centered in the development of novel water-based photopolymerizable resins loaded with bioceramic particles that will be able to fabricate dental components as teeth’s, implants and bridges and, biodegradable 3D porous structures (scaffolds) for bone regeneration. To attain this general goal, the following specific objectives are envisioned: - To develop baseline photopolymerizable water-based resins, using aqueous soluble pre-polymers. - To developed bioceramic-loaded photopolymerizable resins by loading the baselines with different bioceramic powders, namely zirconia-based and calcium-phosphate based for, bioinert and biodegradable applications, respectively. - To develop a lean and cost-effective AM process able to fabricate 3D-structures for dental applications with an optimized operational performance, namely conform quality, minimum manufacturing cycle time, minimum cost and waste of material. - To implement effective de-binding and sintering cycles for bioinert dental materials by taking benefit of the environmentally friendly baseline resin and selecting new zirconia powders able to be sintered at lower temperatures. - To attain sintering-less calcium phosphate (CaP)-based components for bone regeneration by using biocompatible and water-based photopolymerizable baselines that can create CaP composite structures in a single step, i.e. ready to use after printing. - To validate the ECORESIN feedstock and associated AM process capabilities by printing patient specific dental components (bone defect parts and dental crowns) and evaluate their biomechanical, structural and biological performance. The experimental work envisioned, will enroll master students from materials engineering, biomedical engineering and dental medicine, being the training of these students an important goal of the ECORESIN project. Additive manufacturing is a growing area, particularly for ceramics, since currently are in a lower level of development when compared to other materials (polymers or metals). ECORESIN aims to be a launch ramp to overcome this fact, by attracting students and professionals from multidisciplinary and complementary areas.