A tough hydrogel-hydroxyapatite bone-like composite fabricated in situ by the electrophoresis approach

Mechanically strong hydrogel-HAp composites have been successfully fabricated through in situ formation of hydroxyapatite (HAp) in a tough polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogel with a modified electrophoretic mineralization method. The pre-swelling of the PAAm hydrogels in CaCl₂ buffer solutions makes the electrophoresis method able to produce large area (10 × 8 cm²) hydrogel-HAp composites. At the same time the CaCl₂ solution with different concentrations could control the HAp contents. The obtained hydrogel-HAp composites exhibit enhanced mechanical properties, namely higher extensibility (>2000%), tensile strength (0.1-1.0 MPa) and compressive strength (up to 35 MPa), in comparison to the as-synthesized PAAm hydrogels. FTIR and Raman characterizations indicate the formation of strong interactions between PAAm chains and HAp particles, which are thought to be the main reason for the enhanced mechanical properties. The hydrogel-HAp composite also shows excellent osteoblast cell adhesion properties. These composite materials may find more applications in biomedical areas, e.g. as a matrix for tissue repair especially for orthopedic applications and bone tissue engineering.