Fabrication of polylactic acid/halloysite nanotube scaffolds by foam injection molding for tissue engineering


Eryıldız M., Altan M.

POLYMER COMPOSITES, vol.41, no.2, pp.757-767, 2020 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 41 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2020
  • Doi Number: 10.1002/pc.25406
  • Journal Name: POLYMER COMPOSITES
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Aerospace Database, Chemical Abstracts Core, Chimica, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, INSPEC, Metadex, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.757-767
  • Keywords: cell viability, foam injection molding, halloysite nanotube, mechanical strength, polylactide, scaffold, POLY(LACTIC ACID), MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES, HALLOYSITE NANOTUBES, CELL MORPHOLOGY, PLA, NANOCOMPOSITES, BEHAVIOR, CRYSTALLIZATION, CRYSTALLINITY
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This study presents the improvement of mechanical properties and cell viability of polylactic acid/halloysite nanotube (PLA/HNT) scaffolds that were fabricated by foam injection molding. In this regard, firstly PLA and HNT were compounded on a twin screw extruder by melt mixing method within the HNT loadings of 1, 3, 5 wt%. Then, neat PLA and PLA/HNT pellets were foam injected molded to obtain tensile test samples. The mechanical properties of the scaffolds were determined by tensile test and methyl-thiazol-tetrazolium technique was used for determination of cell viability. The results have shown that the scaffold with 3 wt% of HNT addition gave the highest mechanical strength among the fabricated scaffolds with 124.2% and 79.2% of increments in tensile strength and elongation, respectively. Also, 3 wt% of HNT demonstrated the highest cell viability among the obtained scaffolds due to its improved scaffold morphology.