FABRICATION OF POROUS PCL FIBER WITH CO-CONTINUOUS AND SIZE ADJUSTABLE POROUS STRUCTURES FROM IMMISCIBLE POLYMER BLENDS

摘要

Porous polymer fibers can be fabricated using different methods including hollow fiber extrusion, multicomponent fiber extrusion (e.g. with islands-in-sea morphology), and solution processing. However, with the current technology, it is difficult to achieve a continuous porous structure across the entire fiber cross-section and control the pore size. This greatly limits potential applications of such fibers in many emerging biochemical and biomedical applications. We report here a filament extrusion process of immiscible polymer blends for fabrication of highly porous fibers with continuous and size adjustable porous structures.