| The examination of the adhesive properties of poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF) for application as a hard tissue adhesive and as an adhesive for forming laminated three-dimensional scaffolds for bone tissue engineering was investigated by two sets of experiments.; The adhesive properties of adherends (fabricated with PPF) laminated with PPF were compared with unlaminated controls as well as two well-known hard tissue adhesives, cyanoacrylate and epoxy. By investigating three adhesive parameters (mass, viscosity, and polymer molecular weight), the adhesive properties of PPF were found to match the mechanical properties of unlaminated solid PPF and exceed the adhesive properties of cyanoacrylate and epoxy.; The effect of three scaffold fabrication parameters (porosity, porogen size, and polymer molecular weight) on the tensile properties of laminated scaffolds was investigated. The most significant finding was that a strong bond was formed at the interface between the porous scaffolds independent of scaffold composition. |
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