Aqueous impregnation of porous beta-tricalcium phosphate scaffolds.

The ability of a porous bone graft substitute to be impregnated with an aqueous solution is of great importance for tissue engineering and in vivo applications. This study presents an impregnation test setup and assesses the effect of various synthesis parameters such as sintering temperature, composition, macroporosity and macropore size on the impregnation properties of porous beta-tricalcium phosphate scaffolds dipped in water. Among those parameters, the macropore size had by far the largest effect; generally, the bigger the macropore size, the lower the saturation level. The results also showed that impregnation was less complete when the samples were fully dipped in water than when they were only partially dipped, owing to the requirement for the system to create air bubbles under water. Copyright 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.