Tailoring the surface pore morphology of bioceramic scaffolds through colloidal processing for bone tissue engineering
Fig 2
Schematic illustration of processing procedures, presenting (a) addition of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to water, (b) addition of ceramic powders to the PVA solution, (c) addition of surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to TCP suspensions, (d) thin slip casting, (f) drying and (g) lastly sintering of specimens. HA-D undergo steps a, b, e, f and g; TCP-D undergo steps a, b, c, e, f and g; TCP-E and TCP-CS undergo all steps a to g. (h) Procedure for the preparation of PCL specimens by dip-casting, showing the dipping of a stainless steel rod into a PCL melt pool, cooling and trimming of specimens to size. Colours and dimensions used in this schematic are not representative and are only for illustrative purposes.