Characterizing the viscoelastic behaviour of poly(lactide-co-glycolide acid)–hydroxyapatite foams

The viscoelasticity of poly(lactide-co-glycolid acid) 75/25 and hydroxyapatite composite open-pore foams were examined in this study. The foams were fabricated using the gas foaming/salt leaching process, and two specific experiments were performed. The first was to test the viscoelastic dependency of the foams on the load frequency, and the second was to measure the creep of the foams under a static load. The experiments showed that the viscoelasticity of the foams did not vary with the addition nano-hydroxyapatite particles, but the environment of testing significantly affected these properties. These results can be used to better understand the behaviour of the scaffolds when in the physiological environment.