Produ？？o de fibras de hidroxiapatite por electrofia？？o

this paper reports a new method of producing hydroxyapatite (ha) fibres, combining electrospinning and a non-alcoxide sol-gel system, using cheap precursors. phosphorus pentoxide (p2o5) and calcium nitrate tetrahydrate (ca(no3)2.4h2o) were used as precursors of phosphorus and calcium, respectively. the fibres were electrospun from a mixture of the gel formed from the system ca(no3)2.4h2o/p2o5 with polymeric solutions of polyvinylpyrrolidone (pvp) in water and ethanol/water mixtures. the fibres were analyzed for their morphology (scanning electron microscopy, sem), chemical composition (fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ftir) and structure (x-ray diffraction, xrd). nano and microfibres were obtained, composed mainly of type b carbonated ha with traces of calcium oxide (cao) and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-tcp). from sem analysis it was found that higher concentration of pvp in the electrospinning solutions leads to the formation of cylindrical fibres and that a larger amount of water allows for smaller diameter fibres and narrow diameters distribution. ha fibres produced have potential use either in biotechnology (eg. ion-exchange membranes) and biomedicine (eg. scaffolds for tissue engineeering).