Preparation and characterization of novel functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes/chitosan/β-Glycerophosphate scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

•Chitosan/functionalized carbon nanotubes conductive composites were fabricated for bone tissue engineering.•Addition of B-Glycerophosphate as an ionic crosslinker was a novel step.•Improved electrical and mechanical properties with the addition of Carbon Nanotubes up to 0.5% w/v was achieved.•No cytotoxity was observed.

A major limitation in current tissue engineering scaffolds is that some of the most important characteristics of the intended tissue are ignored. As piezoelectricity and high mechanical strength are two of the most important characteristics of the bone tissue, carbon nanotubes are getting a lot of attention as a bone tissue scaffold component in recent years. In the present study, composite scaffolds comprised of functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (f-MWCNT), medium molecular weight chitosan and β-Glycerophosphate were fabricated and characterized. Biodegradability and mechanical tests indicate that while increasing f-MWCNT content can improve electrical conductivity and mechanical properties, there are some limitations for these increases, such as a decrease in mechanical properties and biodegradability in 1 w/v% content of f-MWCNTs. Also, MTT cytotoxicity assay was conducted for the scaffolds and no significant cytotoxicity was observed. Increasing f-MWCNT content led to higher alkaline Phosphatase activity. The overall results show that composites with f-MWCNT content between 0.1 w/v% and 0.5 w/v% are the most suitable for bone tissue engineering application. Additionally, Preliminary cell electrical tests proved the efficiency of the prepared scaffolds for cell electrical applications.