Carbon nanotubes-reinforced polylactic acid/hydroxyapatite porous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

In the field of bone defect repair, critical requirements for favorable cytocompatibility and optimal mechanical properties have propelled research efforts towards the development of composite materials. In this study, carbon nanotubes/polylactic acid/hydroxyapatite (CNTs/PLA/HA) scaffolds with different contents (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 wt.%) of CNTs were prepared by the thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method. The results revealed that the composite scaffolds had uniform pores with high porosities over 68% and high through performances. The addition of CNTs significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of resulted PLA/HA, in which the 1.5 wt.% CNTs/PLA/HA composite scaffold demonstrated the optimum mechanical behaviors with the bending elastic modulus of (868.5 ± 12.34) MPa, the tensile elastic modulus of (209.51 ± 12.73) MPa, and the tensile strength of (3.26 ± 0.61) MPa. Furthermore, L929 cells on the 1.5 wt.% CNTs/PLA/HA scaffold displayed good spreading performance and favorable cytocompatibility. Therefore, it is expected that the 1.5 wt.% CNTs/PLA/HA scaffold has potential applications in bone tissue engineering.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

CNTs/PLA/HA scaffold / TIPS method / mechanical property / bone tissue engineering

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Authors’ contributions

Weiwei Lan wrote the manuscript, analyzed the data, plotted the graphs, and provided funding for the experiments. Mingbo Wang wrote and revised the manuscript. Zhenjun Lv, Jun Li, and Fuying Chen operated the experiments. Ziwei Liang and Xiaochun Wei revised and checked the manuscript. Weiyi Chen provided funding for the experiments. Di Huang conceptualized and supervised the experiment, obtained funding, and managed the project.

Declaration of competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12202302, 12272253, and 82103147). The support of the Fund Program for the Scientific Activities of Selected Returned Overseas Professionals in Shanxi Province (Grant No. 20220006) was also acknowledged with gratitude.

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