Characterizations of nano-zinc doped hydroxyapatite to use as bone tissue engineering

Contamination by bacterial strands is a major problem after bone replacement surgeries, so there is a great need to develop low cost biocompatible antibacterial bioactive scaffolds to be used in bone tissue engineering. For this purpose, nano-zinc doped hydroxyapatite with different zinc-concentrations (5, 10 and 15 mol%) was successfully prepared by the wet chemical precipitation method. The prepared powders were used to form porous scaffolds containing biodegradable Ca-cross-linked alginate (5%) in order to enhance the properties of alginate scaffolds. The scaffolds were prepared using the freeze-gelation method. The prepared powders were tested by X-ray diffraction; transmission electron microscope and Fourier transform infrared analyses, while the prepared scaffolds were investigated by Fourier transform infrared analyses, thermogravimetric analyses and measurement of the antibacterial properties. Best results were obtained from scaffold containing 15% mol zinc-doped hydroxyapatite powders and 5% alginate concentration with ratio of 70:30.