Ceramics and scaffolds of porous and strengthened hydroxyapatite for biomedical applications

Abstract

Biomaterials have been widely used in tissue engineering applications at an increasing rate in the past few years. In particular, bone tissue engineering has emerged as one of the most indispensable approaches to address bone trauma and several problems, like osteoporosis, bone cancer and bone infections, that arose in the last decades due to the accelerated growth of human population and consecutive increase of life expectancy. Hydroxyapatite, an inorganic mineral belonging to the calcium apatite family and having the chemical formula Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, has been widely used specifically in this field due to its ability to mimic the mineral composition of bones and teeth in vertebrates, its excellent physical, chemical, and biological properties and facile adaptable surface functionalization with other innumerable essential materials. This work of thesis mainly focuses on the synthesis of pure HAp nanoparticles through a rapid sol-gel method and subsequently the production of ceramics and scaffolds of porous and strengthened hydroxyapatite for biomedical applications.