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Porous composite structures derived from multiphase polymer blends
Author(s) -
Baklavaridis Apostolos,
Zuburtikudis Ioannis,
Panayiotou Costas
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.24025
Subject(s) - materials science , porosity , plga , scanning electron microscope , composite number , composite material , polystyrene , extrusion , polymer , montmorillonite , porous medium , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , engineering
Porous biopolymer structures have attracted a lot of attention in the recent years because of their potential applications in tissue engineering. In this work, porous structures of poly(lactic‐ co ‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) reinforced with organically modified montmorillonite (Cl15A) were fabricated. A ternary, co‐continuous blend consisting of PLGA/PS/Cl15A (PS: Polystyrene) was prepared by melt extrusion. Then, a porous PLGA composite was created by the sacrificial extraction of the PS phase. The morphological characterization revealed the creation of a well‐formed 3D porous network consisting of Cl15A‐reinforced PLGA. Quantitative results obtained from the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of the fabricated porous structures show that small variations in the clay loading affect the geometrical characteristics (% porosity and pores average diameter) of these porous structures. The results suggest that these porous PLGA/clay structures may be promising candidates for mechanically strong scaffolds in tissue engineering applications, but this remains upon testing. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:1856–1863, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers