Fabrication of Porous n-HA/PA66 Composite for Bone Repair

Using nano-hydroxyapatite/polyamide66 composite (n-HA/PA66) and a special foamer as start materials, a porous species for bone defect repair was successfully developed by thermal-pressing method. The resulting material presented: (1) high compressive strength which reached 13~46MPa; (2) excellent porous structure, the average diameter of pores in the matrix was in range of 280μm to 500μm and porosity of 36% to 57%. The porous architecture could be adjusted by the combination of processing parameters such as the weight of start mixture used per mold and the ratio of composite to foamer as well as n-HA content in the composite. No apparent change in composition and structure of n-HA/PA66 composite was found by XRD and IR determination before and after formation of porous species. According to Sherrer equation, the value of D(002) of n-HA crystals in porous material and start powder were about 70nm, indicating no occurrence of change in size of n-HA during the thermal-pressing procedure. Additionally, no foamer residual was detected in porous species.