3D Printing of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Porous Structures Using Selective Laser Sintering

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) 3D porous cubes were successfully built with Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), one of the many existing 3D printing technologies. The resulting cubes presented shape and dimensions very close to the corresponding virtual model. Moreover, they were resistant to handling without presenting any visible damage. The PHB powder did not present variation in thermal properties and chemical composition after 32.15 hours of SLS process as observed by proton nuclear resonance (H-1 NMR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, indicating that it can be re-utilized to print additional structures without affecting the reproducibility of the process.