A functionalised carbon nanotube-gelatin-Zn doped HA composite coating for bone grafting application

ABSTRACT

To improve the surface bioactivity of carbon/carbon composites, functionalized carbon nanotube-gelatin-Zn doped hydroxyapatite (FIC-GL-ZnH) composite coatings were fabricated on carbon/carbon composites by a combination method of chemical vapor deposition, soaking and electrochemical deposition method. The morphology, bonding strength and in-vitro bioactivity of composite coating were investigated. Results showed that the functionalized carbon nanotube-gelatin could not only bond with the carbon/carbon composite substrate tightly by in-situ grown mode but also provide a three-dimensional network structure for the infiltration of Zn doped hydroxyapatite. The FIC-GL-ZnH coating with spherical shape had excellent bonding strength, which was about 2.3 times higher than that obtained for Zn doped hydroxyapatite coating. In-vitro bioactivity test demonstrated that the FIC-GL-ZnH coating could induce the formation of bone-like apatite with particle shape, exhibiting good in-vitro bioactivity. It was suggested that the FIC-GL-ZnH coating might be an effective method to improve the surface bioactivity of carbon/carbon composites.

KEYWORDS:

• Carbon/carbon composites
• Zn-doped hydroxyapatite
• carbon nanotubes
• gelatin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 51872232, 51821091, the Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing (NWPU), China (Grant No. 136-QP-2015) and “111” project of China (B08040).