Preparation of porous microsphere-scaffolds by electrohydrodynamic forming and thermally induced phase separation

The availability of forming technologies able to mass produce porous polymeric microspheres with diameters ranging from 150 to 300 μm is significant for some biomedical applications where tissue augmentation is required. Moreover, appropriate assembly of microspheres into scaffolds is an important challenge to enable direct usage of the as-formed structures in treatments. This work reports the production of poly (glycolic-co-lactic acid) and poly (ε-caprolactone) microspheres under ambient conditions using one-step electrohydrodynamic jetting (traditionally known as atomisation) and thermally induced phase separation (TIPS). To ensure robust production for practical uses, this work presents 12 comprehensive parametric mode mappings of the diameter distribution profiles of the microspheres obtained over a broad range of key processing parameters and correlating of this with the material parameters of 5 different polymer solutions of various concentrations. Poly (glycolic-co-lactic acid) (PLGA) in Dimethyl carbonate (DMC), a low toxicity solvent with moderate conductivity and low dielectric constant, generated microspheres within the targeted diameter range of 150-300 μm. The fabrication of the microspheres suitable for formation of the scaffold structure is achieved by changing the collection method from distilled water to liquid nitrogen and lyophilisation in a freeze dryer.