Assessment of Compressive Ratio and Sintering Temperature Effects on Mechanical Properties of Collagen/Hydroxyapatite Composite Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

Porous HA scaffolds were synthesized from bioceramics using the polyurethane (PU) sponge template method at various sintering temperature and compressive ratio to study mechanical properties. The as-prepared HA scaffolds were fabricated with collagen (COL) or collagen/HA particles (COL/HA, 9:1 ratio) in coating condition. The porous microstructure and mechanical properties of fabricated biomaterials were analyzed by FE- SEM and Shimadzu Compact Tabletop Testing Machine EZTest, respectively. It was revealed from the study that incorporation of COL or COL/HA materials into pure HA scaffolds in coating condition enhanced the mechanical properties of fabricated biomaterials significantly. It was also noteworthy that sintering the pure HA at 1200 °C and 1100 °C but fabricating with COL and COL/HA materials, respectively, demonstrated the best performances. In contrary, among 95, 75 and 50% compressive ratios, 50% compressive ratio at 1000 °C, 1100 °C and 1200 °C sintering temperature significantly improved the mechanical properties of the fabricated composite scaffolds