Effect of Foreign Ion Substitution and Micropore Tuning in Robocasting Single-phase Bioceramic Scaffolds on the Physicochemical Property and Vascularization

The inorganic powder slurry extrusion printing technique known as robocast is an interesting method to fabricate complex porous architectures whereby feedstocks containing organic binders and powders are printed and the resulting scaffolds are subjected to sintering. A major limiting factor of this technique is the simultaneous tailoring of vascularization efficacy and esteogenic activity, usually done by adding the secondary phase in organic slurry before writing step. Mechanically mixing biphasic powders are required to avoid compromising the biological performances and physical defects caused by significant different physicochemical properties. This study addresses this issue by developing a selective ion doping and microstructure tuning for the production of bioceramic scaffolds with a bi-nozzle robocasting process. Different metal ions (Sr2+, Mg2+) were doped into wollastonite (CaSiO3; CSi) powders considering the mechanical stability and bioactive enhancement of the bioceramic scaffolds. Subsequentl...