Biocompatible polymeric material with well-defined, interconnected porous structure plays an important role in many biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, controlled drug release, biochemical sensing, and 3D cell culture for drug discovery. In this study, a novel fabrication process for porous polymer is developed using high intensity focused ultrasound. This acoustic method is solvent-free and capable of creating interconnected porous structures with varying topographical features at designed locations. An experimental study on the selective ultrasonic foaming technique is presented in this paper. We investigated the effects of major process variables, including ultrasound power, scanning speed, and gas concentration. Both pore size and interconnectivity of the created porous structures were examined. It was found that the pore size could be controlled with the scanning speed of the ultrasound insonation and that interconnected porous structures could be obtained using a partial saturation procedure. A concentration-dependent gas diffusion model was developed to predict the gas concentration profiles for partially saturated samples. A cell culture study was conducted to examine cell growth behavior in the fabricated porous structures.
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April 2008
Research Papers
Selective Ultrasonic Foaming of Polymer for Biomedical Applications
Hai Wang
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Washington
, Seattle, WA 98195-2600
Wei Li
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Washington
, Seattle, WA 98195-2600J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. Apr 2008, 130(2): 021004 (9 pages)
Published Online: March 7, 2008
Article history
Received:
April 27, 2007
Revised:
November 5, 2007
Published:
March 7, 2008
Citation
Wang, H., and Li, W. (March 7, 2008). "Selective Ultrasonic Foaming of Polymer for Biomedical Applications." ASME. J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. April 2008; 130(2): 021004. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2823078
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