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Room temperature synthesis of agarose/sol–gel glass pieces with tailored interconnected porosity
Author(s) -
Cabañas M. V.,
Peña J.,
Román J.,
ValletRegí M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.30724
Subject(s) - materials science , porosity , agarose , slurry , dissolution , composite material , template , bead , simulated body fluid , apatite , layer (electronics) , scaffold , mold , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , biomedical engineering , chromatography , scanning electron microscope , medicine , chemistry , engineering
An original shaping technique has been applied to prepare porous bodies at room temperature. Agarose, a biodegradable polysaccharide, was added as binder of a sol–gel glass in powder form, yielding an easy to mold paste. Interconnected tailored porous bodies can be straightforwardly prepared by pouring the slurry into a polymeric scaffold, previously designed by stereolitography, which is subsequently eliminated by alkaline dissolution at room temperature. The so obtained pieces behave like a hydrogel with an enhanced consistency that makes them machinable and easy to manipulate. These materials generate an apatite‐like layer when immersed in a simulated body fluid, indicating a potential in vivo bioactivity. The proposed method can be applied to different powdered materials to produce pieces, at room temperature, with various shapes and sizes and with tailored interconnected porosity. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2006