Carbon Nanotube Coating on 3-D Nanofibrous PLLA Tissue Engineering Scaffolds by Electrophoretic Deposition

Abstract

Abstract.A uniform CNTs coating on highly porous nanofibrous and biodegradable PLLA scaffolds, intended for tissue engineering, by the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique. The morphologies before and after EPD of CNT coating were investigated by SEM. The mechanical properties were also measured and the EPD mechanism was discussed. The negatively charged CNTs enforced by the electric field moved towards the anode through the gaps of PLLA nanofibers of the scaffolds, where they interwined with PLLA nanofibers and form CNT coating. The nanocomposite scaffolds after CNT coating still remain interconnectivity as high as the control PLLA scaffolds. We finally got a scaffold that aimed to simulate different scale levels for tissue engineering purpose. The different scales from macro-scale (10µm-425µm), subcellular scale structures (0.1-10 µm) to nanostructures (20-100 nm) are favor to control cellular environment and cell-matrix interactions. The CNT coating can greatly improve the compressive modulus of the 3D PLLA scaffolds.