A facile approach to construct three-dimensional oriented chitosan scaffolds with in-situ precipitation method

How to construct three-dimensional oriented chitosan scaffolds with improved mechanical property is essential to further design bone-regenerative scaffolds. Materials with multi-layer structures involve excellent mechanical properties. In this research, a facile approach was adopted to construct three-dimensional oriented chitosan scaffolds. The chitosan gel with multi-layer structure was first prepared with in-situ precipitation, and then lyophilization was applied to obtain porous scaffolds. SEM images indicated that the porous scaffolds had spoke-like framework in cross-section and multi-layer structure in vertical-section. Compared with the disordered scaffolds prepared with lyophilization method, the scaffolds prepared with in-situ precipitation method showed a significantly improved compressive strength. With chitosan concentration of 4–5% and drying time of 60 min, the scaffold showed the best comprehensive property with a suitable porosity and a high compressive strength. This novel porous scaffold with three-dimensional oriented structure might have potential application in bone tissue engineering.