Fabrication of flexible and porous hydroxyapatite composite with alginate and its evaluation

Abstract

Flexible and porous forms of hydroxyapatite(Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 : HAp)composites with various amounts of alginate (AG) were fabricated using HAp and sodium alginate. The de-ionized water was added to the mixture of fibrous HAp and AG in order to form a paste, and then the paste was freeze-dried for 24 h. This freeze-dried material was put into 1 mol dm-3 CaCl2 solution in order to fabricate a porous body. The compressive strength of porous composite increased from 0.47 to 3.2 MPa with increasing HAp/AG ratio from 0.5 to 8.0, reflecting the increased bulk density from 0.17 to 0.67 g cm-3.