Synthesis of chitosan/brushite powders for bone cement composites

Abstract

Recently, calcium phosphate cements have been considered in medicine and dentistry because of their excellent biocompatibility and advantages in situ handling and shaping abilities. Nevertheless, low mechanical strength of these cements limits wider the clinical applications. The aim of this work was the synthesis of chitosan/brushite powders for preparing the calcium phosphate cements. The synthesis of brushite was carried out in the chitosan matrix from calcium chloride and sodium phosphate at moderate pH of 4 and then dried from 60 to 100°C. The obtained powders were characterized by XRD and FT-IR technique. With increasing the drying temperature, phase of dicalcium phosphate anhydrous increased. Moreover, FTIR indicate the bands attributable to chitosan and brushite. The brushite synthesized using this route was used to be a starting powder for calcium phosphate cement (CPC). To prepare CPC, the mixture of chitisan/brushite and α-tricalcium phosphate powders was mixed with various liquid phases and then cured at 100% humidity for 7 d The compressive strength of the cements was determined to evaluate the potential use for the bone cement. Cements formed with chitosan/brushite dried at 100°C had the greatest compressive strength of all cement tests. The improvement of compressive strength seemed to depend on the affinity of chitosan incorporated in the cements.