Biomimetic apatite coating on 3d printed scaffolds for bone tissue engineering application

Bone-like apatite coating of polymeric materials by biomimetic coating to enhance their bone tissue healing capability is a very successful technique used in bone tissue engineering. Creating favorable environment for cells of the bone tissue by forming apatite layer is one of the best approaches for controlling the cell response. The purpose of this thesis is to obtain bone-like apatite layer onto 3D printed [Polylactic Acid (PLA)/Polycaprolactone (PCL); (70/30 w/w)] blend polymer scaffolds by means of using a simple biomimetic coating process and also to determine the most effective pretreatment and coating process. Before coating pretreatment was applied to all scaffolds with 1M NaOH alkaline solution and then 0.2M CaCl2 and K2HPO4 solutions respectively to improve Ca-P layer attachment and formation. Simulated body fluid (SBF) was utilized to mimic physiological conditions of the body throughout immersion duration of the samples which were eventually observed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for their morphological development at the 8th, 14th and 21th days. Ca-P development on the scaffolds were confirmed with Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).