PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOACTIVE COMPOSITES OF PCL/BIOACTIVE FILLERS

A variety of bioactive composites have been invested over the last two decades as substitute materials for diseased or damaged tissues in the human body. In this paper, bioactive composites were prepared using polycaprolactone (PCL) and hydroxyapatite (HA). The influence of micro-sized and nano-sized HA on composite properties was investigated. The nano-HA was prepared by wet chemical co-precipitation reaction method. Studies of biocomposite specimen morphology were performed by Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) and DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry) were used to assess the crystal structure of HA and thermal properties of the composites, respectively. The synthesized nano-HA is found to be of high purity HA structure. The relationship between composition, structure and properties was studied. Different methods to prepare uniform composites were tried, and the outcome of this work suggests that by proper manipulation of biodegradable polymers and bioactive ceramics through material design, bioactive composites with controlled properties might be achievable.