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Polymers
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3D Printing Polymers: Advancements in Materials and Applications, 2nd Edition
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3D Printing Polymers: Advancements in Materials and Applications, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Processing and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2025) | Viewed by 616

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yu Zhang

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Guest Editor
Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
Interests: 3D printing; molecular pharmaceutics and drug delivery; polymer; green polymers; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jiaxiang Zhang

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Guest Editor
School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
Interests: drug delivery system; patient-focused drug development; hot-melt extrusion; 3D printing; quality by design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Following the success of Polymers’ “3D Printing Polymer: Processing and Fabrication” Special Issue, we are delighted to reopen the SI under the title of “3D Printing Polymers: Advancements in Materials and Applications, 2nd Edition”.

The 3D printing of polymers is being increasingly used in the pharmaceutical, aerospace, and architecture industries, among others, as well as in the fabrication of sensors and other devices. This additive manufacturing technology builds 3D objects layer-by-layer (LBL), minimizing waste while achieving high geometric precision. However, many 3D-printed polymer models are still primarily used as conceptual prototypes due to strength and functionality limitations for load-bearing applications. Enhancing these properties may involve combining polymers with functional additives like nanoparticles, natural materials, and biomedically active substances (e.g., peptides, enzymes) to create multi-ingredient polymer systems with improved mechanical and functional characteristics.

This Special Issue invites papers on various aspects of polymer processing and fabrication, focusing on 3D printing (additive manufacturing) and the latest advancements in material development and the related applications. 

Dr. Yu Zhang
Dr. Jiaxiang Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • 3D printing of polymers
  • additive manufacturing
  • polymer processing and fabrication

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 17212 KiB  
Article
Three-Dimensional Printing of Personalized Carbamazepine Tablets Using Hydrophilic Polymers: An Investigation of Correlation Between Dissolution Kinetics and Printing Parameters
by Lianghao Huang, Xingyue Zhang, Qichen Huang, Minqing Zhu, Tiantian Yang and Jiaxiang Zhang
Polymers 2025, 17(15), 2126; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym17152126 - 1 Aug 2025
Viewed by 256
Abstract
Background: Precision medicine refers to the formulation of personalized drug regimens according to the individual characteristics of patients to achieve optimal efficacy and minimize adverse reactions. Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, has emerged as an optimal solution for precision [...] Read more.
Background: Precision medicine refers to the formulation of personalized drug regimens according to the individual characteristics of patients to achieve optimal efficacy and minimize adverse reactions. Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, has emerged as an optimal solution for precision drug delivery, enabling customizable and the fabrication of multifunctional structures with precise control over morphology and release behavior in pharmaceutics. However, the influence of 3D printing parameters on the printed tablets, especially regarding in vitro and in vivo performance, remains poorly understood, limiting the optimization of manufacturing processes for controlled-release profiles. Objective: To establish the fabrication process of 3D-printed controlled-release tablets via comprehensively understanding the printing parameters using fused deposition modeling (FDM) combined with hot-melt extrusion (HME) technologies. HPMC-AS/HPC-EF was used as the drug delivery matrix and carbamazepine (CBZ) was used as a model drug to investigate the in vitro drug delivery performance of the printed tablets. Methodology: Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to assess the thermal compatibility of CBZ with HPMC-AS/HPC-EF excipients up to 230 °C, surpassing typical processing temperatures (160–200 °C). The formation of stable amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) was validated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), hot-stage polarized light microscopy (PLM), and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). A 15-group full factorial design was then used to evaluate the effects of the fan speed (20–100%), platform temperature (40–80 °C), and printing speed (20–100 mm/s) on the tablet properties. Response surface modeling (RSM) with inverse square-root transformation was applied to analyze the dissolution kinetics, specifically t50% (time for 50% drug release) and Q4h (drug released at 4 h). Results: TGA confirmed the thermal compatibility of CBZ with HPMC-AS/HPC-EF, enabling stable ASD formation validated by DSC, PLM, and PXRD. The full factorial design revealed that printing speed was the dominant parameter governing dissolution behavior, with high speeds accelerating release and low speeds prolonging release through porosity-modulated diffusion control. RSM quadratic models showed optimal fits for t50% (R2 = 0.9936) and Q4h (R2 = 0.9019), highlighting the predictability of release kinetics via process parameter tuning. This work demonstrates the adaptability of polymer composite AM for tailoring drug release profiles, balancing mechanical integrity, release kinetics, and manufacturing scalability to advance multifunctional 3D-printed drug delivery devices in pharmaceutics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing Polymers: Advancements in Materials and Applications, 2nd Edition)
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