Nanomolding of Nanostructured Biodegradable Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

In replica molding or imprinting for industrial applications, robustness and durability of the replica mold are the main requirements. In this study, we demonstrate a replica mold fabrication method for nanohemisphere arrays nanomolding by nickel (Ni) electroforming using the highly ordered nanohemisphere array of the barrier-layer surface of an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane as the master mold. The feature size of the nanohemispheres can be controlled by using different etching solutions for anodic oxidation of aluminum (Al). Using the Ni replica mold, nanostructured tissue engineering scaffolds in poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), polylactide (PLA), and chitosan are fabricated by casting. Hot embossing is also conducted to fabricate the nanostructured PC film for anti-fingerprint and anti-reflection. These results indicate that the proposed nanomolding method provides a feasible approach for repetitive production of biodegradable tissue engineering scaffolds with controllable nanostructure.