Preparation of chitosan/poly(L-lactide) porous composite scaffolds

This research investigated the formation of chitosan/poly(L-lactide) (CS/PLLA) porous composite scaffold using a novel emulsion freeze-drying technique. First, an oilin- water (O/W) emulsification system was used in the presence of surfactant Tween-80, in which CS solution was used as the water phase and PLLA solution was used as the oil phase. The emulsion was observed by inverted microscope (×200). The emulsion droplet was spherical and uniform in size. FT-IR analysis revealed that there were hydrogen bonding interactions between CS and PLLA components. The microstructure and physical properties of the scaffolds were also analyzed. The SEM results showed that composite scaffolds formed well interconnected pore structure and homogenous distribution of CS and PLLA. When the content of PLLA reached 50% the porosity of CS/PLLA composite scaffolds were between 83∼91% and density in the range of 0.047 to 0.11 g/cm3. The porosity showed a slight decrease and the density increased with increasing PLLA dose. The compressive strength increased from 0.32 to 0.43 MPa, while the compressive modulus increased from 1.99 to 3.91 MPa as the PLLA contents increased from 10% to 50%.