Fully Funded PhD: Development of new antimicrobial materials for industrial 3D printing applications.

New and effective methods for controlling the spread of disease are in high demand. Antimicrobial materials are capable of killing or repelling microbes on their surface which is an important possible contribution to solving this problem. 3D printing, in particular laser sintering, is now widely used in industry to make end-use parts but is limited by the restricted choice of materials and added functionality, especially for high-performance applications.

This project aims to develop new methods of creating antimicrobial materials for 3D printing, by incorporating bioactive additives – as developed in our previous work – into commercially available engineering-grade polymers (such as polyamide 12) using Laser Sintering.

We will investigate new methods of introducing antimicrobial functionality into laser sintered parts using novel additives and coatings, both incorporating bioactive materials into the part and modifying the surface. The resulting materials will be tested for their engineering (mechanical, microstructure, surface morphology) and chemical (bulk composition, additive dispersion) properties, and antibacterial functionality (biofilm formation, cell viability).

The new antimicrobial materials that we will develop will be compatible with existing industry-standard laser sintering machines that can be optimised for a variety of biomedical applications (e.g. post-rehabilitation devices for wound healing and surgical devices for example cover plates).

Project aims and objectives

Aim: To develop and evaluate new additives/fillers for incorporation into polymer Laser Sintering materials, to be used to create intrinsically antimicrobial printed parts.

Objectives

1. To identify which polymer base material would be most suitable for the addition of antimicrobial properties; to identify and create suitable additives and powder base materials for Laser Sintering (LS).
2. To manufacture microcomposite parts using LS, optimising the machine parameters and characterising the parts created.
3. To develop and use suitable methods to determine the antimicrobial efficacy of the microcomposite parts.
4. To identify potential proof of concept applications of the antimicrobial material.