Zeta potential measurement in bioactive collagen

Abstract

The focus of this work is to show the influence of surface charge on the bioactivity of modified collagen fiber surface. Because silica plays an important role on bone mineralization process, silica obtained by a sol-gel process was used as a surface modification agent. Zeta potential (xi) of silica-coated and non-coated samples was measured as a function of pH. It was observed a shift in xi vs. pH. The isoelectric point for silica-coated collagen was 6.8, while that of non-treated sample it was near 10. Pure silica has isoelectric point near 2, and the shift observed indicates that at least part of the silica was incorporated onto the surface during the treatment. The ability of samples exposed to biological simulated fluids (SBF) to form a hydroxyapatite layer has been used to recognize bioactive materials. The pH of these biological solutions is about 7.3. It means that treated samples acquire negative charge when in contact with the biological solution and attract ions like Ca2+, HPO4(2-), and OH- to form HA coatings. Micrographs of chemically treated samples corroborate this assumption. For treated samples, the formation of a coating layer is clear after 5-day immersion in SBF, while pure collagen remains practically unaltered. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic (FTIR) analyses confirmed that the coating layer has P-O vibration bands near 1060 cm-1 and 600 cm-1 characteristic of hydroxyapatite (HA).

Keywords

• collagen
• zeta potential
• bioactivity