Fabrication of Collagen/HAP Electrospun Scaffolds with Perfect HAP Nanorods Along Nanofiber Orientation

The purpose of this study is the preparation and characterization of collagen/hydroxyapatite (HAP) fibrous scaffolds with perfect HAP nanorods along nanofiber orientation by combining electrospinning and a chemical precipitation method. Two steps were employed in the composites preparation. First, long rod-like HAP were synthesized through a chemical pathway from Ca(NO3)(2)center dot 4H(2)O, (NH4)(2)HPO4, and CO(NH2)(2), the pH and the aging time played a key role of the phase of HAP and the particle size as well as distribution. The subsequent electrospinning was performed to fabricate the bone-like collagen/HAP fibrous scaffolds by aligning HAP nanorods within the collagen nanofibers. Our results have proved that oriented collagen/HAP fibrous scaffolds with HAP nanorods highly orientation can be obtained, starting from collagen, cheap Ca(NO3)(2)center dot 4H(2)O and (NH4)(2)HPO4, through a very simple and accessible method. The resulted composite materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and the formation mechanism of the layout and orientation of HAP nanorods within the collagen/HAP electrospun scaffolds has been proposed for the first time. HAP nanorods with highly oriented along the long axes of the collagen matrix significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of the corresponding scaffold. This combination of fibrous collagen and HAP nanorods with the wonderful structure mimics the nanoscale features of the extra cellular matrix could be promising for application as scaffolds in medical fields.