Page 85 - MSAM-3-2

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Developing a sustainable resin for 3D printing in

coral restoration

Yukai Jia, Sherin Abdelrahman , and Charlotte A.E. Hauser*
Laboratory for Nanomedicine, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal,
Saudi Arabia

Abstract
Coral reefs boast one of the planet’s most diversified ecosystems, serving as an
essential source of food and revenue for millions of people while providing shelter to
a wide variety of marine creatures. However, overfishing, pollution, climate change,
and other factors collectively pose an escalating danger to coral reefs. Therefore,
coral reef restoration efforts are urgently needed to save corals. In this study, we
exploited 3D printing technology based on vat polymerization to fabricate artificial
coral plugs, expediting the reef restoration process while minimizing labor costs.
We have developed a scalable model through the photoinitiated polymerization
of an eco-friendly resin composed of modified soybean oil and calcium carbonate
which has the potential to significantly enhance global restoration efforts. Material
characterization demonstrated that the printed scaffold was highly cross-linked.
*Corresponding author:
Charlotte A. E. Hauser Based on cytotoxicity analysis, the printed scaffold exhibited excellent cell adhesion
(chauser@age.mpg.de) and proliferation characteristics. The coral microfragmentation experiment showed
initial signs of coral settlement on the printed coral plugs. This work demonstrates
Citation: Jia Y,
Abdelrahman S, Hauser CAE. that plant-based material and vat-polymerization-based 3D printing techniques
Developing a sustainable hold promise for coral restoration.
resin for 3D printing in coral
restoration. Mater Sci Add Manuf.
2024;3(2):3125. Keywords: Coral restoration; 3D printing; Sustainable resin; Calcium carbonate-based ink;
doi: 10.36922/msam.3125
Vat polymerization; Acrylated epoxidized soybean oil
Received: March 9, 2024
Accepted: April 11, 2024
Published Online: May 31, 2024 1. Introduction
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article A coral reef is a diverse underwater ecosystem that provides refuge and protection
distributed under the terms of the to a variety of marine species. However, due to pollution, overfishing, climate
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Creative Commons Attribution change, and other factitious factors, coral reefs are now under unprecedented peril.
2,3
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, Coral bleaching, a process characterized by the loss of vibrant symbiotic algae (e.g.,
provided the original work is Zooxanthellae), has become increasingly common, rendering corals more vulnerable
properly cited. to disease and mortality. Numerous coral reefs worldwide are experiencing a decline,
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Publisher’s Note: AccScience and by predictions, as much as 90% of coral reefs could vanish by 2050 if conservation
Publishing remains neutral with measures are not implemented. 5
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Coral reefs are mostly constructed by calcium carbonate skeletons and colonial
affiliations. marine animals known as coral polyps. The coral polys can spread in two-dimensional
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This article has been updated with
modifications. See the correction (2D) areas and three-dimensional (3D) volumes by the secretion of calcium carbonate.
notice (doi: 10.36922/msam. The secretion of the calcium carbonate skeleton is very slow and serves as a rate-
corr081624). determining process, with an average vertical extension rate of 1 – 10 cm/year. Thus,
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Volume 3 Issue 2 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/msam.3125