Ender blocks, displaying a Tg of about 458C. DSC evaluation of PU compression-moulded specimens showed that each soft and tough segments partially crystallized for the duration of sample preparation (figure 2; initially heating). On the other hand, after the very first DSC heating and subsequent cooling, additional reheating only showed an endotherm linked with soft segment melting (figure two; second heating). Throughout the rheological temperature ramp test, the compression-moulded samples have been kept at 808C for 10 min, followed by a heating step at 108C min21 from 808C to 2008C. As this thermal treatment could ideally market really hard segment crystallization additional, a DSC evaluation simulating the rheological temperature ramp test was performed on compression-moulded specimens. Nevertheless, a comparison involving melting enthalpy information of challenging segments in compression-moulded specimens (table 2, very first heating) and samples analysed by the DSC test simulating the rheological temperature ramp experiment showed similar values, suggesting that the degree of tough segment crystallinity did not modify during the rheological analysis. Importantly, the rheological temperature ramp test evidenced that G0 was lower than G00 at a greater temperature than 1548C (figure 2), which confirmed PU melt processability at greater temperature, in agreement with all the DSC final results. The melt processing temperature is limited by the occurrence of polymer thermal degradation phenomena, which might be analysed by means of TGA. In this work, non-isothermal TGA was carried out under air to mimic the processing circumstances at which the scaffolds were fabricated. PU showed a fat loss of 5 at around 3008C, indicative of a big temperature processing variety (figure 6). Moreover, the measured degradation temperature was in agreement with earlier literature reports on other PUs [20?2].3-(2-Methoxyethyl)azetidine structure A processing temperature of 1558C was thus proposed for melt-extrusion AM of PU.N-Methylmaleimide Chemscene The thermo-mechanical stability of PU was investigated at a 108C greater temperature (1658C).PMID:23075432 Isothermal TGA performed at 1658C for 1 h under air evidenced that PU underwent a fat loss of only 1 (figure 7) and negligible variations in molecular weight and polydispersity index (table 1), suggesting its thermal stability100weight ( )96 94 92 90 0 10 20 30 40 time (min) 50Figure 7. Percentage of weight as a function of time during isothermal TGA analysis at 1658C, for 1 h, under air.SEM micrographs (figure 11) showed cell engraftment and evidence of cell aggregates amongst the scaffold trabeculae right after only 7 days of culture time. After 14 days, a extra uniform cell infiltration was observed. The outcomes of cell proliferation assays are reported in figure 12. Right after initial engraftment (seeding efficacy on PU scaffolds immediately after 24 h was as higher as 78.two + six.2 ), cells cultured on PU scaffolds showed a reduced tendency to proliferate, compared with manage samples.four. DiscussionIn this work, a biocompatible PU was synthesized from degradable and biocompatible creating blocks: PCL diol, BDI and L-lysine ethyl ester dihydrochloride chain extender. This formulation was previously demonstrated to generate biomaterials as optimal substrates for myoblast adhesion, spreading and proliferation [11]. Within this operate, the synthesis technique was slightly modified by the introduction of more purification measures, to get a polymer using a larger molecular weight, so as to increase melt-extrusion. ATR-FTIR analysis confirmed the success on the synthesis of PU, as the characteristic ab.