Highly porous poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds were fabricated by a thermally-induced phase-separation (TIPS) method to deliver plasmid DNA in a controlled manner. A variety of TIPS parameters directly affecting pore structures and their interconnectivities of the scaffold, such as polymer concentration, solvent/non-solvent ratio, quenching methods and annealing time, were sys...

The solidification behavior of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) solution during membrane preparation by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) was investigated. Apparatus newly developed in our laboratory was used to quantitatively measure membrane stiffness during phase separation. In this apparatus, a cooling polymer solution, placed on a stage, is moved upwards and the surface of the poly...

To better engineer small-diameter blood vessels, a few types of novel scaffolds were fabricated from biodegradable poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) by means of thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) techniques. By utilizing the differences in thermal conductivities of the mold materials, the scaffolds with oriented gradient microtubular structures in axial or radial direction were created using be...

Two thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) methods have been used to fabricate biodegradable poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) tissue engineering scaffolds each with fibrous (F-TIPS) and porous (P-TIPS) microstructures. Three levels of PLLA concentration (3, 5 and 7 wt%) were employed in each fabrication method and both wet and dry specimens were studied. Simple compression testing revealed that an...

A polypropylene microporous membrane (PPMM) was fabricated by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method. The effects of protein size and structure as well as filtration pressure on the membrane performance and fouling mechanisms were investigated using two different proteins, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and collagen, in dead-end filtration setup. Obtained results showed that, for each pro...

In this study, the response surface methodology (RSM) based on the central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the preparation condition of polypropylene-grafted maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) microporous membrane by thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) method. A mixture of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and dioctyl phthalate (DOP) was used as diluent. The effect of polymer composition and qu...

In this study, neat HDPE and HDPE/PE-g-MA/EVA blend membranes were fabricated via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method and their fouling behaviors were examined using filtration of BSA protein. Membranes were characterized using FESEM, AFM, ATR-FTIR analyses and porosity measurement. Fouling behavior of membranes was analyzed using the resistance-in-series (RIS), classic and combine...

Abstract In this paper, ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate was the first time successfully utilized as single solvent in preparing PVDF membrane with a good performance by N-TIPs method. The effects of quenching temperature and hydrophilic additive content on morphology, permeability, strength membranes were studied. All prepared proved to be pure β phase FTIR XRD, posse...

Abstract An integrally skinned organic solvent-resistant membrane with asymmetric structure for solvent nanofiltration (OSN) application was developed via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) of nanocomposite polyamide 6. The 6 contains intercalated silicate sheets, which could improve the mechanical properties resultant membrane, as well mitigate swelling after exposure in solvent. influe...