Controlled Structure of Polyester/Hydroxyapatite Microparticles Fabricated via Pickering Emulsion Approach

Abstract

Biodegradable polyester/hydroxyapatite microparticles are widely proposed as microcarriers for drug/cell delivery or scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration. The current research implements the surfactant-free approach for the fabrication of polyester-based microparticles filled with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHA) via the oil/water Pickering emulsion solvent evaporation technique for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The process of polyester microparticle fabrication using nHA for the oil/water interface stabilization was studied as a function of phase used for nHA addition, which allows the preparation of a range of microparticles either filled with nHA or having it as a shell over the polymeric core. The effect of processing conditions (polymer nature, polymer/nHA ratio, ultrasound treatment) on particles’ total yield, size distribution, surface and volume morphology, and chemical structure was analyzed using SEM, EDX, Raman spectroscopy, and mapping. Addition of nHA either within the aqueous or oil phase allowed the effective stabilization of the oil/water interface without additional molecular surfactants, giving rise to hybrid microparticles in which total yield, size distribution, and surface morphology depended on all studied processing conditions. Preliminary ultrasound treatment of any phase before the emulsification process led to a complex effect but did not affect the homogeneity of nHA distribution within the polymeric core of the hybrid microparticles.

The Effect of Alginate Concentration on Crystallinity, Morphology, and Thermal Stability Properties of Hydroxyapatite/Alginate Composite

“…The crystal structure of HAp is hexagonal, having a molar ratio of a Ca/P of 1.67 [ 2 ], which is currently widely applied in biomedical fields such as orthopedics and dentistry, bone tissue engineering, drug delivery materials, and cell imaging [ 3 ]. Various methods, such as the hydrothermal method [ 4 ], precipitation method [ 5 ], sol-gel method [ 6 ], electrodeposition techniques [ 7 ], double diffusion technique [ 8 ], biomimetics [ 9 ], emulsion [ 10 ] and template method [ 11 ] have reported for the fabrication of HAp. It can grow spheric-like, needle-like, fibrous, rod-shaped, irregularly spherical, and flake-shaped, depending on the different growth conditions of crystal faces of each method.…”