FABRICATION OF MICROPATTERNED POLYMER SCAFFOLDS WITH A CO-CONTINUOUS POROUS STRUCTURE

摘要

This article presented a technique for fabricating micropattemed polymer scaffolds having a co-continuous porous structure. Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) was used as a structure-forming material and polystyrene (PS) as a sacrificial one. In this process, a blend of the two polymers was prepared first by melt mixing under appropriate conditions for forming a co-continuous phase structure. Hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles were added to the blend during mixing to reduce interfacial tension and consequently the phase size. Next, the blend was molded into sheets and subsequently hot-embossed for transferring the micropattern on the master to the blend sheet. Finally, the sacrificial PS phase was extracted by solvent to obtain the desired polymer scaffold. This method was successfully demonstrated using the above combination of materials as a model system.