Dual pore network polymer foams for biomedical applications via combined solid state foaming and additive manufacturing

[Display omitted] •Dual pore network polylactide (PLA) foams were fabricated.•Combined additive manufacturing and solid state foaming approach was employed.•Processing parameters can be tuned to obtain foams with varying sizes. Dual pore network polymer foams are categorized as foams having two interconnected pore networks of varying sizes. Potential applications of these foams are in the biomedical field for artificial organ development and high throughput drug testing. In this study, a cost effective and scalable processing technique for fabrication of dual pore network polymer foams via solid state foaming of additively manufactured templates is presented. Initially, a polymer template with either circular or hexagonal features is additively manufactured with the spacing between the features forming the first porous network. The second porous network is obtained by subjecting the additively manufactured template to solid state foaming. The resulting foams have porosity in excess of 80% with the pore sizes in the larger and smaller pore network on the order of 200 µm and 50 µm respectively.