Characterization of the porous structure of biodegradable scaffolds obtained with supercritical CO2 as foaming agent

Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) foams were prepared, via a batch process, by using supercritical CO(2) as foaming agent. Their porous structure was characterized through mercury porosimetry, helium and mercury pycnometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray microtomography observations coupled with image analysis. The pore size distributions obtained by these two latter techniques show that the pore structure is more homogeneous when the foaming process is performed under a high CO(2) saturation pressure (higher than 250 bars).