Fabrication and characterization of β-dicalcium silicate/poly(d,l-lactic acid) composite scaffolds

In this paper, poly (d,l-lactic acid) (PDLLA) incorporated with bioactive β-dicalcium silicate (β-Ca2SiO4) powders to prepare composite scaffolds through conventional solvent casting-particle leaching method using sodium chloride as porogen. The pore structures and morphology of the scaffolds were determined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and the porosity of the scaffolds was measured by Archimedes's method. The bioactivity of the composite scaffolds were evaluated by soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 7 days and the formation of hydroxyapatite (HAp) on the surface was determined by SEM and Electron Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS). The results showed that the composite scaffolds could induce the formation of HAp on their surface after immersion in SBF for 7 days. In addition the hydrophilicity was characterized by measuring the water contact angles of the composite and the results indicated that the addition of β-Ca2SiO4 particles could improve the hydrophilicity and the increase of hydrophilicity could be obtained by the increase of the content of β-Ca2SiO4 particles. Our studies suggested that the combination of PDLLA with bioactive β-Ca2SiO4 could take advantage of the bioactivity and hydrophilicity of β-Ca2SiO4 and might be a promising approach to obtain composite scaffolds with improved properties.