Polyurethane - hydroxyapatite bionanocomposites: development and characterization [articol]

Abstract

In bone tissue engineering, bioactive glasses and related bioactive composite materials represent promising scaffolding materials. This work presents a study on an alternative coating method based on biomimetic techniques which are designed to form a nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite layer very similar to the process corresponding to the formation of natural bone. The hydroxyapatite formation on the surface of porous polyurethane is investigated. Three dimensional, porous scaffolds of the polyurethane were fabricated via solvent casting process. Hydroxyapatite formation on three dimensional scaffolds was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The quality of the bioactive hydroxyapatite coatings was reproducible in terms of thickness and microstructure. SEM analysis showed that the HA layer thickness rapidly increased with increasing time in SCS. The data suggest that the method utilized in this work can be successfully applied to obtain deposition of uniform coatings of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite on porous polyurethane substrates.