Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2025
A Facile and Eco-friendly Route to Fabricate PolyLactic Acid Scaffolds with Graded Pore Size
Published on: October 17, 2016
Silicon dioxide nanoparticles decorated on graphene oxide nanosheets and their application in poly(l-lactic acid)
Cijun Shuai1, Feng Yang2, Yang Shuai3
1State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; Institute of Additive Manufacturing, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang 330013, China.
Introduction:
The aggregation of graphene oxide (GO) is considered as main challenge, although GO possesses excellent mechanical properties which arouses widespread attention as reinforcement for polymers.
Objectives:
In this study, silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles were decorated onto surface of GO nanosheets through in situ growth method for promoting dispersion of GO in poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) bone scaffold.
Methods:
Hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups of GO provided sites for SiO2 nucleation, and SiO2 grew with hydrolysis and polycondensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and finally formed nanoparticles onto surface of GO with covalent bonds. Then, the GO@ SiO2 nanocomposite was blended with PLLA for the fabrication of bone scaffold by selective laser sintering (SLS).
Result:
The results indicated that the obtained SiO2 were distributed relatively uniformly on surface of GO under TEOS concentration of 0.10 mol/L (GO@SiO2-10), and the covering of SiO2 on GO could increase interlayer distance of GO nanosheets from 0.799 nm to 0.894 nm, thus reducing van der Waals forces between GO nanosheets and facilitating the dispersion. Tensile and compressive strength of scaffold containing GO@SiO2 hybrids were significantly enhanced, especially for the scaffold containing GO@SiO2-10 hybrids with enhancement of 30.95 % in tensile strength and 66.33 % in compressive strength compared with the scaffold containing GO. Additionally, cell adhesion and fluorescence experiments demonstrated excellent cytocompatibility of the scaffold.
Conclusions:
The good dispersion of GO@SiO2 enhances the mechanical properties and cytocompatibility of scaffold, making it a potential candidate for bone tissue engineering applications.
