Facilely fabricating PCL nanofibrous scaffolds with hierarchical pore structure for tissue engineering

Highly hierarchical pore structure (macro–micro–nano) for biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds could efficiently enhance cell infiltration and tissue formation. However, it is difficult to prepare these structures by using traditional electrostatic spinning techniques. Here, we report a facile method to fabricate polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous scaffolds with multi-scale pore structure by simple phase separation. By employing water–dioxane as solvents and tris spheres as macropore template, PCL nanofibrous scaffolds with pores 300–800µm, 1–10µm and 100–1000nm in diameter can be facilely produced. All scaffolds possess controlled nanofibrous morphology and porosity (90–98%). This scaffold may provide promising applications in tissue engineering and drug delivery. •An approach to fabricate hierarchical PCL nanofibrous scaffolds by thermal–induced phase separation techniques.•PCL nanofibrous scaffolds possess multi-scale pore distributions.•The morphology and structure of PCL nanofibrous scaffolds could be tailored facilely.