title: Morphological comparison of PVA scaffolds obtained by gas foaming and microfluidic foaming techniques.
abstract: In this article, we have exploited a microfluidic foaming technique for the generation of highly monodisperse gas-in-liquid bubbles as a templating system for scaffolds characterized by an ordered and homogeneous porous texture. An aqueous poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solution (containing a surfactant) and a gas (argon) are injected simultaneously at constant flow rates in a flow-focusing device (FFD), in which the gas thread breaks up to form monodisperse bubbles. Immediately after its formation, the foam is collected and frozen in liquid nitrogen, freeze-dried, and cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. In order to highlight the superior morphological quality of the obtained porous material, a comparison between this scaffold and another one, also constituted of PVA but obtained with a traditional gas foaming technique, was carried out. Such a comparison has been conducted by analyzing electron microscopy and X-ray microtomographic images of the two samples. It turned out that the microfluidic produced scaffold was characterized by much more uniform porous texture than the gas-foaming one as witnessed by narrower pore size, interconnection, and wall thickness distributions. On the other side, scarce pore interconnectivity, relatively low pore volume, and limited production rate represent, by now, the principal disadvantages of microfluidic foaming as scaffold fabrication method, emphasizing the kind of improvement that this technique needs to undergo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Rome La Sapienza, P. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Colosi
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Costantini
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbetta
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pecci
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bedini
authors.forename: Mariella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dentini
mesh_terms: D005740:Gases; D044085:Microfluidics; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol / Q000737:chemistry*; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol