• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.42.2-42.2
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• 2010

Recently, highly porous bone substitutes, which have interconnected open pore structure, have been focused on improving their mechanical properties and modifying their functions. Especially, it is highly required to develop functional gradient structured bone substitute which is available for controlling their material properties such as bioresorption rate and elastic modulus. Porous $ZrO_2$ scaffold was fabricated by the sponge replica method using PU sponge. After 3 times of dip coating and the subsequent oven drying, burning out and microwave sintering were carried out. Various $ZrO_2$-BCP powder mixtures were prepared depending on the ratio and coated on the $ZrO_2$ scaffold by dip coating process. X-ray diffraction analysis was performed to characterize the phase identification of the scaffolds. Microstructures of the bone substitutes were observed using scanning electron microscopy.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.418-422
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• 2010

As a starting material, BCP (biphasic calcium phosphate) nano powder was synthesized by a hydrothermal microwave-assisted process. A highly porous BCP scaffold was fabricated by the sponge replica method using 60 ppi (pore per inch) of polyurethane sponge. The BCP scaffold had interconnected pores ranging from $100\;{\mu}m$ to $1000\;{\mu}m$, which were similar to natural cancellous bone. To realize the antibacterial property, a microwave-assisted nano Ag spot coating process was used. The morphology and distribution of nano Ag particles were different depending on the coating conditions, such as concentration of the $AgNO_3$ solution, microwave irradiation times, etc. With an increased microwave irradiation time, the amount of coated nano Ag particles increased. The surface of the BCP scaffold was totally covered with nano Ag particles homogeneously at 20 seconds of microwave irradiation time when 0.6 g of $AgNO_3$ was used. With an increased amount of $AgNO_3$ and irradiation time, the size of the coated particles increased. Antibacterial activities of the solution extracted from the Ag-coated BCP scaffold were examined against gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus). When 0.6 g of $AgNO_3$ was used for coating the Ag-coated scaffold, it showed higher antibacterial activities than that of the Ag-coated scaffold using 0.8 g of $AgNO_3$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.331-337
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• 2010

A highly porous Biphasic Calcium Phosphate (BCP) scaffold was fabricated by the sponge replica method with a microwave sintering technique. The BCP scaffold had interconnected pores ranging from $80\;{\mu}m$ to $1000\;{\mu}m$, which were similar to natural cancellous bone. To enhance the mechanical properties of the porous scaffold, infiltration of polycaprolactone (PCL) was employed. The microstructure of the BCP scaffold was optimized using various volume percentages of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) for the infiltration process. PCL successfully infiltrated into the hollow space of the strut formed after the removal of the polymer sponge throughout the degassing and high pressure steps. The microstructure and material properties of the BCP scaffold (i.e., pore size, morphology of infiltrated and coated PCL, compressive strength, and porosity) were evaluated. When a 30 vol% of PMMA was used, the PCL-BCP scaffold showed the highest compressive strength. The compressive strength values of the BCP and PCL-BCP scaffolds were approximately 1.3 and 2MPa, respectively. After the PCL infiltration process, the porosity of the PCL-BCP scaffold decreased slightly to 86%, whereas that of the BCP scaffold was 86%. The number of pores in the $10\;{\mu}m$ to $20\;{\mu}m$ rage, which represent the pore channel inside of the strut, significantly decreased. The in-vitro study confirmed that the PCL-infiltrated BCP scaffold showed comparable cell viability without any cytotoxic behavior.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.18.2-18.2
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• 2009

Ceramics have some properties that are unmatched by other kind of materials like metals or polymers. The ability of high thermal and chemical resistance and in case of being superior in specific mechanical properties makes the ceramic materials suitable for arange of applications. The microstructure and morphology of a material arguably permit the use of many advanced application otherwise difficult to achieve.Porous structures have some important applications in biomedical and environmental field. For human hard tissue reconstruction and augmentation procedure suitable biomaterials are used with a desirable porosity. A range of porous bioceramics were fabricated with tailored design to meet the demand of specific applications. Channeled and interconnected porosity was introduced in alumina, zirconia, and hydroxyapatite or tri calcium phosphate ceramics by different methods like multi-pass extrusion process, bubble formation in viscous slurry,slurry dripping in immiscible liquid, sponge replica method etc. The detailed microstructural and morphological investigations were carried out to establish the unique features of each method and the developed systems. For environmental filters the porous structures were also very important. We investigated a range of channeled and randomly porous silicon based ceramic composites to enhance the material stability and filtration efficiency by taking advantage of the material chemistry of the element. Detailed microstructural and mechanical characterizations were carried out for the fabricated porous filtration systems.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.704-709
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• 2014

In this study, we fabricated a novel micro porous hybrid scaffold of biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) and a polylectrolyte complex (PEC) of chitosan (CS) and hyaluronic acid (HA). The fabrication process included loading of CS-HA PEC in a bare BCP scaffold followed by lypophilization. SEM observation and porosimetry revealed that the scaffold was full of micro and macro pores with total porosity of more than 60 % and pore size in the range of $20{\sim}200{\mu}m$. The composite scaffold was mechanically stronger than the bare BCP scaffold and was significantly stronger than the CS-HA PEC polymer scaffold. Bone morphogenetic growth factor (BMP-2) was immobilized in CS-HA PEC in order to integrate the osteoinductive potentiality required for osteogenesis. The BCP frame, prepared by sponge replica, worked as a physical barrier that prolonged the BMP-2 release significantly. The preliminary biocompatibility data show improved biological performance of the BMP-2 immobilized hybrid scaffold in the presence of rabbit bone marrow stem cells (rBMSC).

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2015

Ceramic foams are prepared as positive images corresponding to a plastic foam structure which exhibits high porosities (85-90%). This structure makes the ceramic foams attractive as a catalyst in a dry reforming process, because it could reduce a high pressure drop problem. This problem causes low mass and heat transfers in the process. Furthermore, the reactants would shortly contact to catalyst surface, thus low conversion could occur. Therefore, this research addressed the preparation of dry reforming catalysts using a sol-gel catalyst preparation via a polymeric sponge method. The specific objectives of this work are to investigate the effects of polymer foam structure (such as porosity, pore sizes, and cell characteristics) on a catalyst performance and to observe the influences of catalyst preparation parameters to yield a replica of the original structure of polymeric foam. To accomplish these objectives industrial waste foams, polyurethane (PU) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) foams, were used as a polymeric template. Results indicated that the porosity of the polyurethane and polyvinyl alcohol foams were about 99% and 97%. Their average cell sizes were approximate 200 and 50 micrometres, respectively. The cell characteristics of polymer foams exhibited the character of a high permeability material that can be able to dip with ceramic slurry, which was synthesized with various viscosities, during a catalyst preparation step. Next, morphology of ceramic foams was explored using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and catalyst properties, such as; temperature profile of catalyst reduction, metal dispersion, and surface area, were also characterized by $H_2-TPR$ and $H_2-TPD$ techniques, and BET, respectively. From the results, it was found that metal-particle dispersion was relatively high about 5.89%, whereas the surface area of ceramic foam catalysts was $64.52m^2/g$. Finally, the catalytic behaviour toward hydrogen production through the dry reforming of methane using a fixed-bed reactor was evaluated under certain operating conditions. The approaches from this research provide a direction for further improvement of marketable environmental friendly catalyst production.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.310-318
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• 2014

In this experiment, a highly porous scaffold of biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) was prepared using the spongereplica method. The BCP scaffold was coated with 58S bioactive glass (BG) and sintered for a second time. The resulting scaffold was coated with gelatin (Gel) and cross-linked with [3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl) carbodiimide] and N-Hydroxysuccinamide (EDC-NHS). The initial average pore size of the scaffold ranged from 300 to $700{\mu}m$, with more than 85 % porosity. The coating of BG and Gel had a significant effect on the scaffold-pore size, decreasing scaffold porosity while increasing mechanical strength. The material and surface properties were evaluated by means of several experiments involving scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Cytotoxicity was evaluated using MTT assay and confocal imaging of MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblast cells cultured in vitro. Three types of scaffold (BCP, BCP-BG and BCP-BG-Gel) were implanted in a rat skull for in vivo evaluation. After 8 weeks of implantation, bone regeneration occurred in all three types of sample. Interestingly, regeneration was found to be greater (geometrically and physiologically) for neat BCP scaffolds than for two other kinds of composite scaffolds. However, the other two types of scaffolds were still better than the control (i.e., defect without treatment).

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.10
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• pp.579-583
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• 2008

A porous $Al_2O_3$, scaffold coated with tricalcium phosphate(TCP) was fabricated by replica method using polyurethane(PU) foam as a fugitive material. Successive coatings of $Al_2O_3$ and hydroxyapatite(HAp) were applied via dip coating onto polyurethane foam, which has a slender and well interconnected network. A porous structure was obtained after sequentially burning out the foam and then sintering at $1500^{\circ}C$. The HAp phase was changed to TCP phase at high temperature. The scaffold showed excellent interconnected porosity with pore sizes ranging from $300{\sim}700{\mu}m$ in diameter. The inherent well interconnected structural feature of PU foam remained intact in the fabricated porous scaffold, where the PU foam material was entirely replaced by $Al_2O_3$ and TCP through a consecutive layering process. Thickness of the $Al_2O_3$ base and the TCP coating was about $7{\sim}10{\mu}m$ each. The TCP coating was homogeneously dispersed on the surface of the $Al_2O_3$ scaffold.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.865-871
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• 2016

In recent years, traditional scaffold fabrication techniques such as gas foaming, salt leaching, sponge replica, and freeze casting in tissue engineering have significantly limited sufficient mechanical property and cell interaction effect due to only random pores. Fused deposition modeling is the most apposite technology for fabricating the 3D scaffolds using the polymeric materials in tissue engineering application. In this study, 3D slurry mould was fabricated with a blended biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP)/Silica/Alginic acid sodium salt slurry in PCL mould and heated for two hours at $100^{\circ}C$ to harden the blended slurry. 3D dual-pore BCP/Silica scaffold, composed of macro pores interconnected with micro pores, was successfully fabricated by sintering at furnace of $1100^{\circ}C$. Surface morphology and 3D shape of dual-pore BCP/Silica scaffold from scanning electron microscopy were observed. Also, the mechanical properties of 3D BCP/Silica scaffold, according to blending ratio of alginic acid sodium salt, were evaluated through compression test.