Fabrication of highly porous bioresorbable polymer matrices using supercritical carbon dioxide

A new method for fabrication of highly porous bioresorbable polymer structures on the basis of various aliphatic polyesters for tissue engineering has been successfully designed and worked out. It has been shown that injection of polymer compositions plasticized in sub- or supercritical carbon dioxide into press forms at temperatures from 20 to 40A degrees C through a nozzle of a certain diameter under atmospheric or elevated (up to 6 MPa) CO2 pressure allows obtaining polymer matrices with a desired structure and morphology and mean porosity of up to 96 vol % with high reproducibility and avoiding the use of toxic organic solvents. The effect of chemical composition and molecular mass of starting polymers, as well as temperature and CO2 pressure in the reaction cell and the receiver, on the morphology and internal structure of fabricated samples was studied using the method of scanning-electron microscopy.