Fabrication of chitosan-g-polycaprolactone copolymer scaffolds with gradient porous microstructures

Chitosan-g-polycaprolactone copolymer (CPC) with a relatively low degree of substitution of polycaprolactone (PCL) and a PCL content of around 50 wt.% was first synthesized. CPC was further used to fabricate porous scaffolds with a novel processing method. Basing on a layer-by-layer assembly technique and choosing salt as porogen, these produced scaffolds showed interconnected porous microarchitectures with gradually increasing pore size and porosity along the longitudinal direction. By selecting an appropriate solvent and optimizing processing conditions, the resulting scaffolds would have various pore sizes and porosities which changed from ~ 85 to ~ 390 μm and from ~ 66% to ~ 91%, respectively.