Extrusion-based Technologies for 3D Printing: a Comparative Study of the Processability of Thermoplastic Polyurethane-based Formulations

Thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) offer excellent properties for a wide range of dosage forms. These polymers have been successfully utilized in personalized medicine production using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing (3DP). However, direct powder extrusion (DPE) has been introduced recent...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Aguilar de Leyva, Mercedes Ángela, Linares Blasco, Vicente, Domínguez Robles, Juan, Casas Delgado, Marta, Caraballo Rodríguez, Isidoro
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/162830
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/162830
https://doi.org/10.1080/10837450.2023.2274945
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:3D printing
Thermoplastic polyurethanes
Single screw extrusion
Direct powder extrusion
Fractal Analysis
Descripción
Sumario:Thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) offer excellent properties for a wide range of dosage forms. These polymers have been successfully utilized in personalized medicine production using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing (3DP). However, direct powder extrusion (DPE) has been introduced recently as a challenging technique since it eliminates filament production before 3DP, reducing thermal stress, production time, and costs. This study compares DPE and single-screw extrusion for binary (drug-TPU) and ternary (drug-TPU-magnesium stearate [MS]) mixtures containing from 20 to 60% w/w of theophylline. Powder flow, mechanical properties, fractal analysis, and percolation theory were utilized to analyze critical properties of the extrudates. All the mixtures could be processed at a temperature range between 130 and 160 °C. Extrudates containing up to 50% w/w of drug (up to 30% w/w of drug in the case of single-screw extrusion binary filaments) showed toughness values above the critical threshold of 80 kg/mm2. MS improved flow in mixtures where the drug is the only percolating component, reduced until 25 °C the DPE temperature and decreased the extrudate roughness in high drug content systems. The potential of DPE as an efficient one-step additive manufacturing technique in healthcare environments to produce TPU-based tailored on-demand medicines has been demonstrated.