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Compressive properties and degradability of poly(ε‐caprolatone)/hydroxyapatite composites under accelerated hydrolytic degradation
Author(s) -
Ang K.C.,
Leong K.F.,
Chua C.K.,
Chandrasekaran M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.30996
Subject(s) - materials science , degradation (telecommunications) , composite material , hydrolytic degradation , polycaprolactone , compressive strength , hydrolysis , filler (materials) , sodium hydroxide , modulus , polymer , chemical engineering , telecommunications , biochemistry , chemistry , computer science , engineering
Hydroxyapatite (HA) was incorporated as filler into polycaprolactone (PCL) matrix to improve the bioactivity as well as the compressive properties of the polymer composites that can be typically used in tissue engineering scaffolds. The compressive properties of five PCL/HA composites of different compositions were investigated in conjunction with the study of their rate of degradation. As PCL has a slow degradation rate, the experiment was conducted in a concentrated 5 M sodium hydroxide medium to accelerate the degradation process. The compressive strength and modulus of all PCL/HA compositions were observed to decrease as the degradation experiment progressed, with samples having high HA content degraded most significantly as compared with samples with lower HA content. Pure PCL samples, however, were found to retain their mechanical properties comparatively well in the same degradation experiments. Although the addition of HA as filler into the PCL matrix was shown to have improved mechanical properties and bioactivity initially, these results do raise concerns of material properties being compromise during hydrolytic degradation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2007