ICON Project Photo-AUP - Photo Crosslinkable Urethane-based Biodegradable Polymers for Light-based 3DPrinting and Coating Applications

PHOTO-AUP is focussing on the synthesis and characterization of light-crosslinkable polymers, which remain
biodegradable following crosslinking. The polymers will be exploited in several light-based 3D-printing
techniques including digital light processing (DLP), stereolithography (SLA), volumetric additive
manufacturing (VAM) and two-photon polymerization (2PP). DLP and SLA will enable to create
demonstrators for single-use, high-volume applications, which are currently fabricated using non-degradable
polymers. Our approach will therefore provide a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative for
current, single use materials which pose a huge environmental burden. VAM and 2PP will be exploited to
evaluate the potential of the biocompatible polymer precursors to serve biomedical applications (i.e. as hard
tissue engineering scaffold versus 3D-construct directly printed in a microfluidic chip for drug screening
purposes). In addition to 3D-printing, fluid bed coating will be pursued exploiting the biodegradable polymers
to create controlled release fertilizers showing a nitrogen release during 3 months and improved uptake by
plants.