A tough hydrogel–hydroxyapatite bone-like composite fabricated in situ by the electrophoresis approach†
Abstract
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.