Shape memory behaviour of 3D printed poly(D,L-lactide)

Shape memory polymers are materials able to retain a deformed state until specific stimuli trigger recovery to the original geometry. Stereolithography (STL) 3D printing makes use of polymeric resins to produce parts with highly complex geometry and microscale details. Many polymers such as poly(D,L-lactide) will show shape memory behaviour upon STL printing and can be exploited as smart materials in bioengineering. In order to design a particular application we need to achieve good predictability over the shape memory behaviour of these materials. In this talk I will present my research in this direction. I developed a poly(D,L-lactide) based resin which can be employed in STL printing, I use this resin to fabricate simple-geometry networks and characterise their mechanical response in order to model and predict their shape memory behaviour. I will discuss how knowledge of this response can be used to design biocompatible parts for tissue engineering.