INFLUÊNCIA DA SECAGEM E DO TEMPO DE ENVELHECIMENTO NA OBTENÇÃO DE COMPOSITOS DE HIDROXIAPATITA - COLÁGENO BOVINO

Abstract

Apatites have been widely studied lately as bioceramics in the search for materials which are more and more biocompatible with biological tissues. Unavoidably, the implant of any kind of material in a human body originates a response from this body, characteristic which does not depend only on the nature and composition of the biomaterial, but also on factors as specific as form, size, geometry and properties and superficial characteristics, regarding these materials. This work studied the synthesis of bovine collagen-hydroxyapatite analyzing the influence of drying and ageing time on the morphologic and structural characteristics of hydroxyapatite. Drying was carried out through two methods: oven and freeze drying. Samples were characterized through spectroscopy in the infrared region, differential thermal and thermogravimetric analyses, X-ray diffractometry, particle average size distribution, specific superficial area through BET method and transmission and scanning electronic microscopy. The micrographs obtained through transmission electronic microscopy reveal the formation of crystal agglomerates of nanometric size with acicular form. However, the influence of collagen and drying methods on the results obtained from distribution of particles average size, specific superficial area and SEM was observed. By comparing drying methods, it can be said that freeze dried samples presented different characteristics among themselves, although they still present desired characteristics to obtain apatites for future applications.