Fabrication of scaffold for tissue engineering

Abstract

In this project, a solvent-free membrane fabrication technique was being investigated to study the physical and chemical properties of the membrane fabricated by this method. This membrane is to be served as a scaffold for tissue engineering applications. Different characterisation tests were being carried out on two different average particle size of Polycaprolactone (PCL) powder, 100 μm and 500 μm, and also their respective membranes fabricated by the solvent-free membrane fabrication method. Various modes of heating were also tested to check how different kinds of heating will affect the rate of melting the PCL powder and also study how the end product will differ from each other. In addition, patterning and shaping experiments were carried out to examine whether it is possible to form patterns on PCL membranes and also whether PCL membranes of customised shapes can be produced. The results showed that the solvent-free membrane fabrication technique did not change any of the chemical properties of PCL and it is proven that this method is simple, fast and does not require any organic solvent. Most importantly, this fabrication method was able to produce a porous PCL membrane in just a single step process, without any post process required.