Rapid development of dual porous poly(lactic acid) foam using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing for medical scaffold application

The poor melt property and brittleness of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) cause difficulties in extrusion foaming and decrease product performance in industrial and research fields. In this paper, the rheological properties of PLA resin were improved using an epoxy chain extension reaction, which led to the improvement of pore properties such as morphology and foamability. Reinforced PLA was extruded in a porous filament, and a scaffold was fabricated with design freedom, one-step processing, and dual porosity by extrusion foaming and 3D printing. In addition, in vitro cell culture tests were performed to verify the cell biology assessment and confirm the potential of the scaffold for application as medical scaffolds.