Comparative characterization of biogenic and chemical synthesized hydroxyapatite biomaterials for potential biomedical application

This present study illustrates the processing and comprehensive characterization of biogenic hydroxyapatite (FB-HAp) biomaterial from fish bone (Tuna fish) in a facile single step thermal decomposition procedure. Fish bones were calcined at 1000 °C in an air atmosphere for 1 h. The obtained FB-HAp flakes were ball milled for 30 h at a unidirectional milling speed of 300 rpm. A well-established wet chemical process was obtained to synthesize HAp nanoparticles (C-HAp). The synthesized non-stoichiometric (Ca/P = 1.87) FB-HAp phases were identified by X-ray diffraction study and compared with C-HAp. The thermal properties were studied by thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis. Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the structural and functional groups of FB-HAp and C-HAp. The morphological and elemental analysis was performed by transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Inductive coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy. The synthesized FB-HAp and C-HAp were mixed with 2% starch porogen and compacted with ∼200 MPa unidirectional pressure to obtained small pellet scaffolds. The obtained scaffolds were sintered at 1000 °C in an air atmosphere for 2 h and further used for cell attachment and proliferation study. The FB-HAp biomaterials showed non-toxic behavior with MG-63 osteoblast cell lines similar to C-HAp. Additionally, FB-HAp scaffold showed enhanced cellular attachment and proliferation on its surface. The in-depth chemical, structural, and morphological analysis suggest that fish bone could be a promising sustainable biogenic source of HAp for biomedical applications.