Development of polycaprolactone scaffold with antibacterial activity by an integrated supercritical extraction and impregnation process

Drug loading of polymer implants by supercritical CO 2 assisted impregnation: A review

“…During depressurization, the CO 2 bubbles growth and nucleate resulting in the formation of a porous structure [39,40]. Fanovich et al explored the use of the scCO 2 to impregnate an antibacterial agent in poly(ε-caprolactone) and then foam the sample [45]. The final porosity was interconnected and the mean pore size varied between 150 and 340 μm, which is suitable for bone reconstruction.…”

“…Fanovich et al have recently implemented a process that aims at extracting natural compounds from lichen into a first reactor and then transferring it into a second reactor containing PCL samples for their impregnation [45]. The two rectors processing in different (P, T) conditions, the conditions were optimized for the extraction, the impregnation and the PCL foaming.…”

The effect of ethyl-lactate and ethyl-acetate plasticizers on PCL and PCL–HA composites foamed with supercritical CO2

“…Foaming of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers and composites by means of scCO 2 enables the production of three dimensional porous scaffolds whose properties, mainly overall porosity, pore size distribution and pore interconnectivity, can be fine tuned by the appropriate selection of the processing conditions [9][10][11]14]. The high sorption of scCO 2 within a wide range of polymeric biomaterials, such as biodegradable polyesters, reduces their viscosity by decreasing both the glass transition and melting temperatures [21,22].…”

“…Various porous PCL-based materials and composites foams have been produced by using scCO 2 foaming [9][10][11][12][13]. In a typical process, the polymer is exposed to CO 2 at saturation pressure and temperature (higher than the critical point of CO 2 ), which reduces the apparent glass transition temperature or melting point to the processing temperature (plasticization) [14]. After venting the CO 2 by depressurization, the thermodynamic instability causes supersaturation of the CO 2 dissolved in the polymeric matrix and hence, nucleation of pores occurs.…”

Purification of post-consumer polyolefins via supercritical CO2 extraction for the recycling in food contact applications

“…One possibility can be the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method. This process has been widely studied as a potential alternative technique in the last decades to extract compounds, such as additives, antioxidants, UV stabilizers, residual solvents, unreacted monomers from various polymeric matrices for analytical applications and is becoming increasingly popular in polymer area [11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”