Computer-Aided Porous Materials Description Based on Morphological Spectra

Synthetic porous materials, e.g. based on polyamide, polyether sulfone, polyvinylpyrrolidone etc. compounds, have numerous and important medical applications. They are used as filtering membranes in hemodialysis [1], micro-capsules for cells or drugs encapsulation and delivery [2], scaffolds for biological tissue cultivation [3], etc. Usefulness of porous materials in medical applications directly depends on their biochemical and mechanical properties, in particular, on porosity characteristics. The last should thus be carefully controlled within a production process and kept stable for exploitation period. For this purpose, numerical parameters describing size and shape of pores as well as global material porosity characteristics (porosity factor, material’s permeability, multi-layer architecture of porous membranes etc.) have been proposed [4,5]. In fact, the parameters don’t describe the pores directly but their planar cross-sections visible in SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) images. Moreover, such geometrical parameters like pore section’s spread, surface, length of contour etc. are by computer systems interpreted in a discrete geometry sense, not quite consistent with the widely known Euclidean geometry. The differences are particularly clear in case of small (consisting of several pixels) geometrical objects analysis.