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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Bone consists of up to 70% mostly nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite (HA), and the rest is mostly collagen. One can suggest that synthetic nanoHA/collagen composites could potentially be the closest materials to resemble the bone microarchitecture and prepare resorbable bone substitutes and scaffolds. However, the data on the mechanical properties and property/structure relationships of HA/collagen composites are still scarce. It can be explained, in part, by the high cost of collagen and substantial amounts of materials needed for many tests. However, gelatin is cheap, has many properties similar to collagen, and can be used as a model material for the mechanical testing of HA-based composites. In this study, we report the results of an investigation of some mechanical properties of HA/gelatin composites with 0 to 80% HA nanoparticle (size 15-60 nm) loading by weight. The HA nanoparticle dispersions were mixed with gelatin in trifluoroethanol or in water in different ratios and placed in Teflon molds to produce the sheets with the thickness in the range of 0.4 – 1.0 mm. Nanoindentation technique was used to determine the Young's modulus and hardness. Bending tests were performed using dynamic mechanical analysis with the amplitudes in the 1 – 50 micron range at 1 Hz. The values of Young's modulus (1 – 20 GPa), hardness (70 – 500 MPa) and bending modulus (0.3 – 2.4 GPa) were obtained. The highest values of the Young's modulus and hardness of these composite materials were achieved for 40% – 60% HA content by weight, which was close to the values for similar HA/collagen composites. However, the maximum bending strength was observed for 20 – 35% HA content. We discuss further the observed trends of the mechanical properties and their dependence on other factors such as the test conditions, sample geometry, and HA particle size.