Porous-structure engineering of hydroxyapatite-based scaffold synthesized from Pomacea canaliculata shell by using polyethylene oxide as polymeric porogen

Abstract

Polymeric porogen leaching method was used to fabricate hydroxyapatite (HAp)-based scaffolds. The starting material was prepared from golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) shells. The synthesized material exhibit nanostructured HAp/β-TCP composite. Pore engineering is carried out by removing the polyethylene-oxide (PEO) as porogen from the mixture in sintering process. By varying the concentration of weight of PEO in the mixture, different porosity of scaffolds were obtained for each treatment. The weight concentration of PEO plays an important influence on the morphological porous structure of the HAp-based scaffolds. The FTIR spectra of HAp-based scaffolds did not exhibit PEO functional groups which means that the porogen was completely leached out from scaffold. The thermal analysis of porogen during heating confirms that PEO has leached in sintering process. The mechanical strength of the scaffold decreased as the pore size increased.