Mechanical properties of highly porous PDLLA/Bioglass® composite foams as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

This study developed highly porous degradable composites as potential scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. These scaffolds consisted of poly-d,l-lactic acid filled with 2 and 15 vol.% of 45S5 Bioglass® particles and were produced via thermally induced solid-liquid phase separation and subsequent solvent sublimation. The scaffolds had a bimodal and anisotropic pore structure, with tubular macro-pores of ∼100 μm in diameter, and with interconnected micro-pores of ∼10-50 μm in diameter. Quasi-static and thermal dynamic mechanical analysis carried out in compression along with thermogravimetric analysis was used to investigate the effect of Bioglass® on the properties of the foams. Quasi-static compression testing demonstrated mechanical anisotropy concomitant with the direction of the macro-pores. An analytical modelling approach was applied, which demonstrated that the presence of Bioglass® did not significantly alter the porous architecture of these foams and reflected the mechanical anisotropy which was congruent with the scanning electron microscopy investigation. This study found that the Ishai-Cohen and Gibson-Ashby models can be combined to predict the compressive modulus of the composite foams. The modulus and density of these complex foams are related by a power-law function with an exponent between 2 and 3.