Processing of Nanodiamond Loaded Poly(Lactic Acid) Co-Continuous Porous Structures

Porous poly(lactic acid) PLA materials are highly demanded as scaffolding templates in tissue engineering applications. In this study, a protocol for creating co-continuous porous PLA structures with nanodiamond (ND) as additive was investigated. First, a ternary blend of PLA/PS/ND was prepared with different mixing ratios under different mixing conditions. Next, a post annealing stage was applied to coarsen the phase structure. Finally, the PS phase was sacrificially extracted, leaving a porous matrix. The experimental results showed that ND can be an effective compatiblizer for increasing the miscibility between PS and PLA and reducing the phase size. It was further found that the post annealing conditions significantly affect the distribution of ND particles in the blend and finally in the porous PLA structure.