Summary
Bone tissue engineering benefits from scaffolds that combine the bioactivity of ceramics with the flexibility and toughness of polymers. This work presents a straightforward route to bi-layered constructs that unites two established techniques: foam replication and electrospinning. Highly porous three-dimensional scaffolds of 45S5 bioactive glass — with porosity around 95.8% — were first made by the foam replication method, then dip-coated with polycaprolactone (PCL) to markedly improve their otherwise low compressive strength. On top of this reinforced glass scaffold the authors electrospun a bead-free layer of submicrometre collagen–PCL fibres, forming a bilayer that pairs a bioactive, load-bearing core with a fibrous, ECM-like surface. Surface morphology, wettability and mechanical strength were characterised by electron microscopy, contact-angle measurement and compression testing, confirming the approach as a versatile strategy for composite bone scaffolds.