Ice-templated scaffolds of bioglass nanoparticles reinforced-chitosan

Porous nanocomposite scaffolds were fabricated by freeze casting method with composition of constant chitosan concentration (3 wt.%) blended with different percentages of (10, 20 and 50 wt.%) bioactive glass nanoparticles (BGNPs) which were synthesized by sol-gel method. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images proved that the size of synthesized BGNPs with formula of 64Si02.28Ca0.8P205 was lower than 20 nm. Good interfacial bonding between chitosan polymers and BGNPs was performed as proved with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images showed that the addition of different percentages of BGNPs had no effect on nanocomposites's morphology and pores size. The scaffold contain 20 wt.% of BGNPs represented the highest water absorption value in comparison with the other scaffolds. As the amount of BGNPs was augmented in each nanocomposite, porosity measurements decreased from 92.22% to 88.98% but the compressive module values and compressive strength values improved from 10.04 to 10.77 MPa and 363 to 419 kPa, respectively.