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Characterization of the porous structure of biodegradable scaffolds obtained with supercritical CO2 as foaming agent

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Abstract

Poly(ε-caprolactone) foams were prepared, via a batch process, by using supercritical CO2 as foaming agent. Their porous structure was characterized through mercury porosimetry, helium and mercury pycnometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray microtomography observations coupled with image analysis. The pore size distributions obtained by these two latter techniques show that the pore structure is more homogeneous when the foaming process is performed under a high CO2 saturation pressure (higher than 250 bars).

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Ministry of the “Communauté française de Belgique”, Belgium (Action de Recherche Concertée 00/05-265) and the Ministry of “Région Wallonne” (DGTRE), Belgium, in the frame of the W.D.U. and WINNOMAT programs for their financial support. A. Léonard is grateful to the FNRS (National Fund for Scientific Research, Belgium) for a Postdoctoral Researcher position.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, University of Liège, 4000, Liege, Belgium

    Angélique Léonard, Jean-Paul Pirard & Silvia Blacher

  2. CERM, University of Liège, 4000, Liege, Belgium

    Robert Jérôme

  3. Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry, University of Liège, 4000, Liege, Belgium

    Cedric Calberg & Albert Germain

  4. Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    Greet Kerckhofs & Martine Wevers

Authors
  1. Angélique Léonard
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  2. Cedric Calberg
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  3. Greet Kerckhofs
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  4. Martine Wevers
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  5. Robert Jérôme
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  6. Jean-Paul Pirard
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  7. Albert Germain
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  8. Silvia Blacher
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Correspondence to Cedric Calberg.

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Léonard, A., Calberg, C., Kerckhofs, G. et al. Characterization of the porous structure of biodegradable scaffolds obtained with supercritical CO2 as foaming agent. J Porous Mater 15, 397–403 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-006-9094-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-006-9094-y

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