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Bioactive glass microspheres as reinforcement for improving the mechanical properties and biological performance of poly(ε‐caprolactone) polymer for bone tissue regeneration
Author(s) -
Lei Bo,
Shin KwanHa,
Noh DaYoung,
Koh YoungHag,
Choi WonYoung,
Kim HyounEe
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.32659
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , polymer , caprolactone , composite number , elastic modulus , absorption of water , apatite , chemical engineering , polymerization , engineering
This study examined the utility of sol–gel‐derived bioactive glass microspheres (BGMs) as a reinforcement to improve the mechanical properties and biological performance of poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) polymer. All of the PCL‐BGMs composites produced, with a variety of BGMs contents (10, 20, and 30 wt %), showed a uniform distribution of the BGMs in the PCL matrix, particularly owing to their spherical shape and small size. This led to a considerable increase in the elastic modulus from 93 ± 12 MPa to 635 ± 179 MPa with increasing BGMs content from 0 to 30 wt %. Furthermore, the addition of the BGMs to the PCL polymer significantly increased the hydrophilicity of the PCL‐BGMs composites, which led to a higher water absorption and degradation rate. The PCL‐BGMs composite with a BGMs content of 30 wt % showed vigorous growth of apatite crystals with a high aspect ratio on its surface after soaking in the simulated body fluid for 7 days, resulting in the creation of a porous carbonate hydroxyapatite layer. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2012.