Fabrication of hierarchical meso/macroporous TiO₂ scaffolds by evaporation-induced self-assembly technique for bone tissue engineering applications

This paper reports the synthesis of hierarchical meso/macroporous TiO₂ scaffolds by mimicking bone structure. Evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) method along with foamy method was utilized to produce TiO₂ scaffolds in situ. Simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), small angle X-ray diffraction (SAXD), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherm analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques were applied to characterize the scaffolds. The results showed that TiO₂ scaffolds can be produced after sintering the specimens at 550 °C for 2 h. The obtained scaffolds had a pore size in the range of 150–300 μm and meso pores in the range of 6–12 nm. The specific surface area was obtained from the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller theory, the total volume and mean diameter of pores were 67.89 m³ g⁻¹, 0.1245 cm³ g⁻¹ and 7.3 nm, respectively.