Scientists have used 3D printing to make chocolate more crackly, and now, researchers at EPFL’s Soft Materials Laboratory managed to fabricate bone-like composites with bacteria-loaded ink. More specifically, a 3D printable ink containing Sporosarcina pasteurii, which is a bacterium that triggers a mineralization process when exposed to a urea-containing solution, resulting in calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
This ink, called BactoInk, can be 3D-printed to virtually any shape, which then gradually mineralizes over the course of a few days. Since BactoInk is mineralized in a separate step, the final product boasts a mineral content of over 90%, making it a strong as well as resilient bio-composite that can be produced using a standard 3D printer with natural materials. Final products no longer have living bacteria, since everything is submerged in ethanol at the end of the mineralization process.
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3D printing is gaining increasing importance in general, but the number of materials that can be 3D printed is limited for the simple reason that inks must fulfill certain flow conditions. For example, they must behave like a solid when at rest, but still be extrudable through a 3D printing nozzle – sort of like ketchup,” said Esther Amstad, Lab Head at EPFL’s Soft Materials Laboratory.
