Fabrication of nano-macroporous glass-ceramic bioscaffold with a water soluble pore former

Recently, several methods have been reported for fabricating tailored amorphous multi porosity bioscaffolds for bone regeneration and tissue engineering. In particular, the melt-quench-heat-etch method appears attractive for making large and/or complex shape structures or fibers for flexible products. However, often the macropore size has been limited to <100 μm. In this paper we report an improved method for fabricating nano-macroporous soda lime phosphosilicate glass using sucrose as a macropore former. The composite compact consisting of soda lime phosphosilicate glass and sucrose powders is pressed in a die at room temperature. 3D interconnected macroporous structure is formed first by dissolving the sucrose part in water at room temperature, and then sintering the compact at temperatures above the glass transition temperature. Thus, interconnected macropores with controlled size (≥100 microns) are formed readily. The sintering heat-treatment also induces nanoscale phase separation, which is then exploited for introducing nanoscale porosity. For the latter goal, the sample is leached in HCl under optimized conditions to yield desired nano-macroporous glass for bone scaffold or other applications.