Survey and Investigation of Nanostructure Hardystonite/Biphasic Calcium Phosphate to Use in Biomedical Engineering

Abstract

The development of structures serving as scaffolds to fill bone defects, and promote bone regeneration is of a particular importance in bone tissue engineering. In this study, highly porous (≈75%) nanostructured hardystonite/biphasic calcium phosphate scaffolds (BCPS) with interconnected porosity were developed using various hardystonite contents via the space holder technique. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were employed to evaluate different samples. In addition, the role of scaffold composition on the mechanical performance, bioactivity and biodegradability was studied. The results showed that the scaffolds produced have an average pore size of 350 nm and a density between 2.2 ± 0.4 and 1.7 ± 0.2 gr/cm3, depending on the hardystonite contents. Furthermore, increasing the hardystonite content of scaffolds from 0 (control) to 30 wt. % enhanced the bioactivity test, biodegradability, and compressive strength from 1.1 ± 0.1 to 3.1 ± 0.2 MPa, respectively. Our project suggests that nanostructured hardystonite/BCPS with improved biological and mechanical properties could potentially be used for biomedical engineering such as bone tissue engineering application.

Keywords

• nanostructure
• hardystonite
• calcium phosphate
• in vitro
• tem
• sem