Electrospun Nanofibers of Poly(L-lactide)/Rod-like Hydroxyapatite Composites

Rod-like hydroxyapatites (HAs) were successfully fabricated with , , and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a stabilizer. FT-IR was used to identify rod-like HA and to observe the functional groups on the surface of HA. We conducted the turbiscan test to confirm the effects of the HA ratio on the dispersion stability in the chloroform/acetone mixture. A 3D scaffold for bone tissue regeneration was produced by electrospinning poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) with 2, 5, and 10 wt% of rod-like HAs. SEM, TEM, and XRD showed that rod-like HAs were well-embedded into the electrospun PLLA nanofibers and the mechanical properties of PLLA and PLLA/HA nanofibers were measured by UTM. Pure PLLA nanofibers had higher tensile strength than PLLA/HA nanofibers. Furthermore, 2 and 5 wt% of HAs-incorporated PLLA nanofibers showed increased Young`s modulus compared to pure PLLA nanofibers because of the hardness of HA and the strong interaction between PLLA and HA by hydrogen bonds.