Improvement of medical applicability of hydroxyapatite/graphene oxide nanocomposites via additional yttrium oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Hydroxyapatite is one of the most studied bioactive materials in the biomedical field. However, Hydroxyapatite’s low mechanical strength and low fracture toughness represent a limitation in its applications as a load-bearing biomaterial. Yttrium oxide and graphene oxide (GO) have previously been shown to enhance these mechanical characterization of hydroxyapatite (HAP) when combined in binary nanocomposites. In this study, a novel ternary nanocomposite hydroxyapatite/yttrium oxide/graphene oxide has been developed and its characteristics have been compared to the nanoparticles and binary nanocomposites of its components. The compositions of the prepared materials have been confirmed. The typical morphologies of the three components of the nanocomposites have been shown by scanning and transmission electron microscopes with HAP nanoparticles. The average roughness has decreased from 11.4 nm in the nanoparticles of the pure HAP to 7.9 nm in the ternary nanocomposite. All prepared nanocomposites have shown an acceptable slight decrease in cell viability with 96.9 ± 3.5% cell viability in the composite. The ternary nanocomposite has also shown a higher antibacterial activity compared to its individual constituents, with a zone of inhibition of 12.9 ± 1.1 mm and 12.5 ± 0.9 mm against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively, compared to no inhibition in the case of pure Hydroxyapatite.