%0 Journal Article
%T The Fabrication and Characterization of PCL/Rice Husk Derived Bioactive Glass-Ceramic Composite Scaffolds
%A Farnaz Naghizadeh
%A Naznin Sultana
%A Mohammed Rafiq Abdul Kadir
%A Tengku Muzaffar Tengku Md Shihabudin
%A Rafaqat Hussain
%A Tunku Kamarul
%J Journal of Nanomaterials
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/253185
%X The present study was conducted to fabricate a 3D scaffold using polycaprolactone (PCL) and silicate based bioactive glass-ceramic (R-SBgC). Different concentrations of R-SBgC prepared from rice husk ash (RHA) were combined with PCL to fabricate a composite scaffold using thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method. The products were then characterized using SEM and EDX. The results demonstrated that R-SBgC in PCL matrix produced a bioactive material which has highly porous structure with interconnected porosities. There appears to be a relationship between the increase in R-SBgC concentration and increased material density and compressive modulus; however, increasing R-SBgC concentration result in reduced scaffold porosity. In conclusion, it is possible to fabricate a PCL/bioactive glass-ceramic composite from processed rice husk. Varying the R-SBgC concentrations can control the properties of this material, which is useful in the development of the ideal scaffold intended for use as a bone substitute in nonload bearing sites. 1. Introduction The use of biomaterials for treating bone defects has been widely accepted despite the availability of natural bone grafts. This is due to the lack of donor site morbidity issues and the avoidance of possible disease transmission regarding biomaterials [1¨C3]. Among the many biomaterials available, polycaprolactone (PCL), which is a synthetic biodegradable polymer, has shown great promise [4, 5]. In fact, PCL is presently one of the few biomaterials approved by FDA for use as bone graft substitutes [5¨C7]. PCL can be easily fabricated into a material possessing the desired toughness, which is appropriate for bone replacement. In addition to being biocompatible, PCL has a low degradation rate, which is a desired feature in a biomaterial designed for specific sites of bone with longer healing times [4]. However, this material alone without additives demonstrates low mechanical resistance to compressive loading, hydrophobicity, and low bioactivity [8]. To counter these problems, bioactive ceramics/biodegradable polymer composite materials were introduced. These new materials demonstrated superior properties including improvement in material strength, stiffness, biodegradability, osteoconductivity, and bioactivity [4, 6, 7, 9]. In addition, polymer/bioactive ceramic composite scaffolds have structures that resemble bone, where the inorganic component of these scaffolds mimics the hydroxycarbonate-apatite (HCA) motifs while the polymer component mimics the collagen-rich extracellular matrix. Although both HCA and
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnm/2014/253185/