Synthesis of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers incorporating hydroxyapatite nanoparticles as future implant materials

This study examined the mechanical properties of a disc consisting of electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers incorporated with high purity hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles (NPs) for potential hard tissue engineering applications. As HAp NPs are insoluble in a PVA aqueous solution, electrospinning of a colloidal solution was used instead of the conventional process, which is based on completely miscible solutions. The PVA/HAp colloidal solutions were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and electrophoratic light scattering (ELS), which indicated a unimodal size distribution and negative zeta potential. The physiochemical characterizations confirmed the production of PVA electrospun nanofibers incorporating HAp NPs. To investigate the bioactivity of the produced nanofiber mats, compacted mats with a disc shape were incubated in stimulated body fluid (SBF) at 37 °C for 6 days. SEM indicated that the incorporation of HAp strongly activates the precipitation of the apatite-like materials because the HAp NPs act as seeds that accelerate the crystallization of biological HAp from the utilized SBF.