Phosphate glass (PG) of the composition 0.46(CaO)-0.04(Na(2)O)-0.5(P(2)O(5)) was used as filler in poly-L-lactic acid (PLA) foams developed as degradable scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. The effect of PG on PLA was assessed both in bulk and porous composite foams. Composites with various PG content (0, 5, 10, and 20 wt %) were melt-extruded, and either compression-molded or foamed through...

The current study is focused on exploring the possibility of reinforcing syntactic foams with carbon nanofibers (CNFs). Syntactic foams are hollow, particle-filled composites that are widely used in marine structures and are now finding applications in other modes of transportation due to their high stiffness-to-weight ratio. The compressive properties of syntactic foams reinforced with CNFs ar...

The discomfort associated to the use of orthosis results mainly from friction between the coating material, in this case the foams, and human skin. Although, nowadays the use of such devices is common, there is few information concerning the influence of the properties of the foams in the tribological behavior of the orthosis. In this study it was investigated the effect of the morphology, mech...

The origin of diffusive transport of light in dry foams is still under debate. In this paper, we consider the random walks of photons as they are reflected or transmitted by liquid films according to the rules of ray optics. The foams are approximately modeled by three-dimensional Voronoi tessellations with varying degree of disorder. We study two cases: A constant intensity reflectance and the...

While microporous biopolymer matrices are being widely tested as cell culture substrates in hepatic tissue engineering, the microstructural basis for their control of cell differentiation is not well understood. In this paper, we studied the role of void size of collagen foams in directing the induction of liver-specific differentiated morphology and secretory activities of cultured rat hepatoc...

Novel syntactic foams made of starch and ceramic hollow micro-spheres were developed. Foams of four different micro-sphere size groups were manufactured with either preor post-mould gelatinisation process. Compressive failure behaviour and mechanical properties were evaluated. Not much difference in failure behaviour or in mechanical properties between the two processes (preand post-mould gel) ...

Microwave technology is a highly effective approach to fast and uniform heating. This article investigates that the microwave heating as a novel method is used to rapidly foam and actuate biocompatible and biodegradable shape memory crosslinked-polycaprolactone (c-PCL) foams. The optical microscope proves that the resulting c-PCL foams have homogenous pore structure. Mechanical behavior and sha...

A collection of applications of polymer matrix syntactic foams is presented in this article. Syntactic foams are lightweight porous composites that found their early applications in marine structures due to their naturally buoyant behavior and low moisture absorption. Their light weight has been beneficial in weight sensitive aerospace structures. Syntactic foams have pushed the performance bou...