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Porous‐Conductive Chitosan Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering, 1
Author(s) -
Wan Ying,
Wu Hua,
Wen Dijiang
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.200400044
Subject(s) - polypyrrole , chitosan , materials science , miscibility , porosity , composite material , conductivity , ultimate tensile strength , conductive polymer , chemical engineering , dopant , tissue engineering , polymer , polymer chemistry , doping , chemistry , biomedical engineering , polymerization , optoelectronics , engineering , medicine
Abstract Summary: Novel porous‐conductive chitosan scaffolds were fabricated by incorporating conductive polypyrrole (PPy) particles into a chitosan matrix and employing a phase separation technique to build pores inside the scaffolds. Conductive polypyrrole particles were prepared with a microemulsion method using FeCl 3 as a dopant. The preparation conditions were optimized to obtain scaffolds with controlled pore size and porosity. The conductivity of the scaffolds was investigated using a standard four‐point probe technique. It was found that several kinds of scaffolds showed a conductivity close to 10 −3 S · cm −1 with a low polypyrrole loading of around 2 wt.‐%. The main mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, breaking elongation and Young's modulus of the scaffolds, were examined both in the dry and in the hydrated states. The results indicated that a few different kinds of scaffolds exhibited the desired mechanical strength for some tissue engineering applications. The miscibility of polypyrrole and chitosan was also evaluated using a dynamic mechanical method. The presence of significant phase separation was detected in non‐porous PPy/chitosan scaffolds but enhanced miscibility in porous PPy/chitosan scaffolds was observed.Variation in conductivity of the scaffolds with polypyrrole content.