화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Materials Science, Vol.55, No.27, 12705-12724, 2020
Structural analysis of porous bioactive glass scaffolds using micro-computed tomographic images
Three-dimensional structural properties such as pore size, interconnectivity, and tortuosity of scaffold play an essential role in bone tissue regeneration. We report the structural characterization of bioactive glass-based scaffolds by employing micro-computed tomography (mu CT) imaging. mu CT images were filtered and binarized to get 3D reconstruction of the scaffold. Fast march method was applied on 3D reconstructed scaffold to estimate tortuosity. Further, Canny edge detection algorithm was used to identify pore boundaries. Graph traversal algorithm was used to identify pore networks as open, close, and through. Pore and minimum throat size for a through path were quantified using equivalent circle diameter based on ASTM F2603-06. The porosity (66.69%), mean pore size (443 mu m), mean pore throat diameter (131 mu m), and tortuosity in different planes (similar to 1) imply suitability of the scaffold for bone tissue engineering. Any porous sample can be characterized by the methodology directly with mu CT or other imaging techniques.