The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of preparing chitosan porousmatrixes using supercritical fluid technology. Supercritical immersion precipitation technique wasused to prepare scaffolds of a natural biocompatible polymer, chitosan, for tissue engineeringpurposes. The physicochemical and biological properties of chitosan make it an excellent materialfor the preparation of drug delivery systems and for the development of new biomedicalapplications in many fields from skin to bone or cartilage.Immersion precipitation experiments were carried out at different operational conditions in orderto optimize the processing method. The effect of different organic solvents on the morphology ofthe scaffolds was assessed. Additionally, different parameters that influence the process were testedand the effect of the processing variables such as polymer concentration, temperature and pressurein the chitosan scaffold morphology, porosity and interconnectivity was evaluated by microcomputed tomography. The preparation of a highly porous and interconnected structure of a naturalmaterial, chitosan, using a clean and environmentally friendly technology constitutes a newprocessing technology for the preparation of scaffolds for tissue engineering using these materials.
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