Evaluation of physical and Mechanical Properties of β-tri-calcium phosphate/Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate Nano Composite Scaffold for Bone Tissue Engineering Application

One of the major challenges facing researchers of tissue engineering is scaffold design with desirable physical and mechanical properties for growth and proliferation of cells and tissue formation. In this paper, firstly, β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) nano powders with particle size of 50-70 nm were synthesized using a simple sol–gel route with calcium nitrate and potassium dihydrogenphosphate as calcium and phosphorus precursors, respectively. Then the porous ceramic scaffold containing 40, 50 and 60wt% of nβ-TCP was prepared by the polyurethane sponge replication method. The scaffolds were coated with P3HB for 30 s and 1 min in order to increase the scaffold’s mechanical properties. XRD, XRF, SEM, TEM and FT-IR were used in order to study the phase and element structure, morphology, particle size and determination of functional groups, respectively. Based on the results of compressive strength and porosimetry tests, the most appropriate type of scaffold is 50 wt% of nβ-TCP immersed for 30 sec in P3HB with 75% porosity in 200-600 μm, with a compressive strength of 1.09 MPa and a compressive modulus of 33MPa, which can be utilized in bone tissue engineering.