Preparation and Properties of Poly(lactide-co-glycolide)/Bone Meals Composite Materials

Poly(lactide-co-glycolide)/bone meals composites using poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and bone meals (BM) as the starting materials were successfully prepared via solution dispersion method. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and BET were used to characterize the resulting PLGA and bone meals. The mechanical properties of composites were carried out by the three-point-bending test, and the micrographs of cross-section of composites were observed using SEM. The results indicate that both the bending strength and modulus of PLGA/BM composites increased with bone meals increasing up to 10 wt%, then decreased with bone meals content, indicating that the fracture feature of PLGA/BM composites changed from typical brittle to ductile fracture when the bone meals content changed from 0 to 10 wt% and from ductile to brittle facture while bone meals content ranging from 10 to 20 wt%. It was further confirmed by SEM images of composites. The biocompatibility results show that resulted PLGA/BM composites are favorable biomaterials for cell adhesion, differentiation and proliferation. PLGA/BM composite has shown great potential for biomedical applications as biodegradable polymers.