Poly lactic acid based foams prepared via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS): A method to tune the crystallinity.

Blends of Poly-L-Lactic Acid (PLLA) with two Poly-Lactic Acid (PLA) in different proportions (90/10 and 70/30) were utilized in order to produce biodegradable and biocompatible scaffolds for soft tissue engineering applications. The scaffolds were produced via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) starting from ternary systems where dioxane was the solvent and water the non-solvent. Morphology was evaluated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (average pore size and interconnection). Moreover a DSC analysis was carried out on the as-obtained scaffold in order to obtain information about theirs thermal properties (enthalpy of melt and crystallization). The results showed that is possible to prepare scaffolds of PLLA/PLA via TIPS. Moreover, the PLA seems to influences the TIPS process in terms of demixing temperatures. The data confirm that the morphology and the mechanical properties of the scaffold can be tuned, starting from PLLA blends and using PLA with different molecular weights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]