Applications of supercritical CO2 in the fabrication of polymer systems for drug delivery and tissue engineering

Supercritical CO2 has the potential to be an excellent environment within which controlled release polymers and dry composites may be formed. The low temperature and dry conditions within the fluid offer obvious advantages in the processing of water, solvent or heat labile molecules. The low viscosity and high diffusivity of scCO2 offer the possibility of novel processing routes for polymer drug composites, but there are still technical challenges to overcome. Moreover, the low solubility of most drug molecules in scCO2 presents both challenges and advantages. This review explores the current methods that use high pressure and scCO2 for the production of drug delivery systems and the more specialized application of the fluid in the formation of highly porous tissue engineering scaffolds.