| Summary: | The high mechanical properties and thickness of films fabricated with layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly combined with simplicity, versatility and low cost of the technique are worth exploring for an engineered bone substitute application. This research programme investigated the use of polymer-nanocomposite material system composed of polyethyleneimine (PEI), polyacrylic acid (PAA) and nanoclay (PEI/PAA/PEI/nanoclay) as means of coating 2D and 3D specimens with the aim to adapt LbL assembly to fabricate stiff and strong polymer-nanocomposite coatings onto an open-cell porous template that enables customisation of physical and mechanical properties of coated porous structures. Open-cell foams were coated with the PEI/PAA/PEI/nanoclay material system and demonstrated a general fabrication strategy of coating porous structures via LbL assembly. The architecture and physical properties of the foams evolved in a regular and predictable manner, with strut thickness and mass increasing, and cell size and porosity decreasing as the coating thickness increased. The work outlined in this thesis has shown that the physical (mass, thickness, porosity) and mechanical (compressive modulus, collapse stress) properties of coated templates can be tailored by changing the processing parameters during the coating deposition. The experimental data was compared with theoretical predictions to examine if this approach would be suitable for a potential bone substitute application. MG-63 and pBM-MSC cell lines had the ability to adhere and proliferate on the surface of 10-quadlayer coatings capped with PAA and thermally treated, suggesting that the LbL assembly coating is a promising candidate for an engineered bone scaffold substitute application. It is expected that the results of this study will serve as a guide for the design of engineered scaffold materials with compressive modulus and collapse stress comparable to that of cancellous bone tissue and allow for fabrication and customisation of stiff and strong porous materials for application such as sandwich panels or high-end packaging.
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