Gold nanoparticles as additives in polyether ether ketone (PEEK) filaments used in 3D printing

聚醚醚酮（PEEK）是一种热塑性聚合物，由于具有高机械强度（与人体骨骼相当）、生物相容性、化学稳定性和经济成本，广泛用于生物医学应用。某些PEEK配方已被卫生当局批准用于人体植入。 最近，新的增材制造（即，3D打印）设备的开发，以促进PEEK生物医学植入物的生产。PEEK 3D打印面临的主要困难之一是必须将聚合物长丝加热到300 ℃以上。因此，专门的设备已开发用于此特定应用。然后，在许多新兴的生物医学应用中，PEEK长丝用作“聚合物油墨”或“进料”，需要在PEEK基质中添加某些添加剂，例如金纳米颗粒。这对于开发用于医学物理应用的聚合物植入物特别重要，例如手术基准（在X射线成像中可见的植入物）或光热治疗植入物（通过红外辐射由金纳米颗粒产生的热量）。这两种应用都需要金纳米颗粒在PEEK长丝中的最佳分散。不幸的是，文献中缺乏关于最佳PEEK熔融、纳米颗粒混合和挤出程序的数据，以提供金纳米颗粒在PEEK细丝中的均匀分散，以用于3D打印机。在这项研究合作中，一个学术实验室（Fortin博士，U.拉瓦尔）专门从事生物医学成像和放射治疗的纳米材料以及生物医学聚合物的3D打印，与一家公司（索纳纳米技术）合作，生产高质量和高纯度的金纳米棒，吸收近红外线，并在用红外光激发时产生热量。研究小组将建立程序，将金纳米棒最佳分布到用于生物医学植入物3D打印的挤出PEEK细丝中。结果，

Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is a thermoplastic polymer widely used in biomedical applications due to high mechanical strength (comparable to human bones), biocompatibility, chemical stability and economic costs. Certain formulations of PEEK have already been approved for human implantation by the health authorities. Recently, new additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) equipment were developed to facilitate the production of PEEK biomedical implants. One of the major difficulties faced by 3D printing for PEEK, is the necessity to heat the polymer filament to more than 300oC. Therefore, dedicated equipment have been developed for this specific application. Then, in many emerging biomedical applications, PEEK filaments used as the "polymer ink" or "feed", require certain additives in the PEEK matrix, such as gold nanoparticles. This is particularly important for the development of polymer implants to be used in medical physics applications such as fiducials for surgery (implants that are visible in X-ray imaging), or photo thermal therapy implants (heat produced by gold nanoparticles through infrared irradiation). Both of these applications require an optimal dispersion of gold nanoparticles in the PEEK filaments. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of data in the literature about the most optimal PEEK melting, nanoparticle blending and extrusion procedures to provide a uniform dispersion of gold nanoparticles in PEEK filaments to be used in 3D printers. In this research partnership, an academic laboratory (Dr Fortin, U.Laval) specialized in nano materials for biomedical imaging and radiotherapy as well as 3D printing of biomedical polymers, partners with a company (Sona Nanotech) expert in the production of gold nanorods of high quality and purity that absorb in the near IR, and generate heat when excited with IR light. The research team will establish the procedures leading to an optimal distribution of gold nano rods into extruded PEEK filaments used in 3D printing of biomedical implants. The results of thi