Preparation of Hydroxyapatite Fibers by Electrospinning Technique

Abstract

Hydroxyapatite (Ca 10 (PO 4 ) 6 (OH) 2 , HA) fibers were prepared by electrospinning a precursor mixture of Ca(NO 3 ) 2 ·4H 2 O and (C 2 H 5 O) 3 PO with a polymer additive, followed by a thermal treatment. The X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the annealed composite fibers revealed that pure HA phase could be obtained by annealing at 600°C for 1 h. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed the surface of as‐electrospun composite fibers with an average diameter of 50 μm was smooth due to the amorphous nature of the polymer. However, the surface of the calcined HA fibers was rough because of the complete removal of the polymer. The pure HA fibers obtained by electrospinning in this work were up to 10 mm in length and 10–30 μm in diameter and the hydroxyapatite grain size was ∼1 μm in the HA fibers.