Effect of Different Solvents in Solvent Casting of Porous caffolds in Biomedical and Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

In the present investigation, PLA porous scaffolds was fabricated using NaCl as porogen in three different solvents i.e. 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP), dichloromethane (DCM) and chloroform (CF) respectively, by solvent casting particulate leaching method. The morphology, structure and thermal behaviour of the PLA scaffolds for porosity measurement were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The developed porous scaffolds were further characterized for porosity measurement, solvent uptake property and water absorption capacity at different temperatures. PLA/ CF scaffold depicted higher porosity factor (93%) along with enhanced water uptake capacity (220%) as against PLA/ HFIP scaffold (75%). However PLA/ DCM scaffolds illustrated more thermal stability as compared with PLA/ HFIP and PLA/ CF scaffolds.