Fabrication of titanium dioxide nanofibers containing hydroxyapatite nanoparticles

In the present study, we introduce titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) nanofibers that contain hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles (NPs) as a result of an electrospinning process. A simple method that does not depend on additional foreign chemicals has been employed to synthesize HAp NPs through calcination of bovine bones. Typically, a colloidal gel consisting of titanium isopropoxide/HAp was prepared to produce nanofibers embedded with solid NPs by electrospinning process. The SEM results confirmed well oriented nanofibers and good dispersion of HAp NPs over the nanofibers. XRD results demonstrated well crystalline feature of both TiO(2) and HAp. Physiochemical aspects of prepared nanofibers were characterized for TEM and TEM-EDS which confirmed nanofibers were well oriented and had good dispersion of HAp NPs. Accordingly, these results strongly recommend the use of obtained nanofiber mats as a future candidate for hard tissue engineering applications. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.