Fabrication of Nanocomposite Bioelastomer Porous Scaffold Based on Chitin Nanocrystal Supported Emulsion-Freeze-Casting

Degradable bioelastomers as porous scaffold materials have great potentials in tissue regeneration due to their compatible mechanical properties to the body’s soft tissues. A citrate-based elastomer is a recently developed bioelastomer possessing good surface affinities toward many cell types, but its insoluble and unmeltable characteristics caused difficulties in fabricating porous scaffolds. Herein, a new method where chitin nanocrystal (ChiNC) supported emulsion-freeze-casting was utilized to fabricate porous scaffolds of thermoset elastomer. ChiNC was initially used as a Pickering emulsifier to stabilize prepolymer latex spheres, then as a supporting agent to prevent ice-templated pores from collapse during thermocuring, and last as a biobased nanofiller to reinforce the porous scaffold. When ChiNC loading was at least 15% or greater, the directional porous structure were facilely obtained via use of a thick-walled Teflon container in a freezer at −40 °C. The nanocomposite elastomer porous scaffold ex...