Bone scaffolds are often fabricated by initially producing custom-made filaments by twin-screw extruder and subsequently fabricating into 3D scaffolds using fused deposition modelling. This study aims to directly compare the effect of two alternative silica-rich filler materials on the thermo-mechanical properties of such scaffolds after extrusion and printing. Poly (DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PDLGA) was blended with either 45S5 Bioglass (5 wt %) or Biosilica (1 and 5 wt%) isolated from Cyclotella meneghiniana a freshwater diatom were tested. Diatom-PDLGA was found to have similar mechanical strength and ductility to pure-PDLGA, whereas Bioglass-PDLGA was found induce a more brittle behaviour. Bioglass-PDLGA was also found to have the lowest toughness in terms of energy absorption to failure. The TGA results suggested that significant thermal degradation in both the Bioglass filaments and scaffolds had occurred as a result of processing. However, diatom biosilica was found to inhibit thermal degradation of the PDLGA. Furthermore, evidence suggested the agglomeration of Bioglass particles occurred during processing the Bioglass-PDLGA filaments. Overall, diatom biosilica was found to be a promising candidate as a bone filler additive in 3D printed PDLGA scaffolds, whereas Bioglass caused some potentially detrimental effects on performance.

骨支架通常是通过首先使用双螺杆挤出机生产定制的长丝，然后使用熔融沉积建模将其制造成3D支架来制造的。这项研究旨在直接比较两种替代的富含二氧化硅的填充材料对此类支架在挤压和印刷后的热机械性能的影响。将聚（DL-丙交酯-共-乙交酯）（PDLGA）与45S5生物玻璃（5 wt％）或生物硅石（1和5 wt％）混合，分离自Meneghiniana测试了淡水硅藻。发现硅藻-PDLGA具有与纯-PDLGA相似的机械强度和延展性，而生物玻璃-PDLGA被发现具有更脆的性能。就故障吸收的能量而言，还发现Bioglass-PDLGA的韧性最低。TGA结果表明，由于加工的结果，生物玻璃丝和支架都发生了明显的热降解。然而，发现硅藻生物二氧化硅抑制了PDLGA的热降解。此外，有证据表明，在加工Bioglass-PDLGA细丝时会发生Bioglass颗粒的团聚。总体而言，硅藻生物二氧化硅被认为是3D打印PDLGA支架中骨填充剂的有前途的候选者，而生物玻璃对性能产生了一些潜在的不利影响。