Preparation And Characteristics Of SF/HA Porous Composite

Silk fibroin (SF) and Hydroxyapatite (HA) composite powders were synthesized from CaO, H3PO4 and SF solution on the principle of neutralization. The SF/HA powders were characterized using SEM, TGA, XRD and FT-IR. The results showed that the average diameter of SF/HA composite powders were 275.7 nm, its content of SF were 17.8 wt%. It concluded that silk fibroin could promote the crystal growth of hydroxyapatite along C-axis via the Scherrer formula from XRD patterns.The porous SF/HA composite could be prepared when adding silk short fibers and using NaCl as porogen by isostatic pressing. The porous SF/HA composite were characterized using SEM and Instron Tensile Tester.A few silk short fibres could distribute uniformly in the composite when using ultrasonic. Add the silk short fibres to the composite with NaCl and silk fibroin, the toughness increased sharply. The more quantity of silk short fibers in the composite, the higher the toughness and the flexual strength were. The average pore diameter of porous SF/HA composite were from 101μm to 183μm and the porosity were from 59% to 74% when using NaCl as porogen. Add the silk fibroin solution concentrated to the composite with NaCl and silk short fibres, the flexual strength and compressive strength of the composite increased. But the flexual strength and compressive strength of the composite declined after adding porogen.