Laser-induced fabrication of doped-graphene based on collagen for bone tissue engineering scaffold applications

Electro-active scaffolds play an important role in bone tissue engineering applications, serving as physical substrates for cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation, ultimately realizing new bone regeneration. This paper discusses a novel strategy to synthesize graphene through laser-induced surface doping, using bone collagen as the carbon source, serving as a key functional filler to be combined with biocompatible, biodegradable poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), for the fabrication of the next generation electro-active bone tissue engineering scaffolds. Scaffolds are fabricated through material-extrusion additive manufacturing. The developed graphene is proven to present a significant enhancement effect on surface and mechanical properties over the conventional graphene material.