The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Wet-spinning and thermal analysis of collagen fibers incorporating hydroxyapatite in mixed and coated form
Author:	Prakash, Sandesh Nathaniel
View Online:	njit-etd2005-114 (x, 50 pages ~ 4.3 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Biomedical Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Biomedical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Jaffe, Michael (Committee chair) Collins, George (Committee member) Arinzeh, Treena Livingston (Committee member)
Date:	2005-08
Keywords:	Collagen fibers Wet-spinning Thermal analysis
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The composition of natural bone comprises of collagen (Cg) as organic phase which acts as a matrix and inorganic calcium phosphate, particularly hydroxyapatite (HA), which is used as reinforcement. This study involved the wet-spinning of collagen fibers incorporating HA in mixed and coated form. The weight percent ratio of collagen and HA in the composite fibers was 95 to 5 respectively. HA coating on pure collagen fibers was achieved by immersing them in HA solution formed by mixing HA in water. With Thermomechanical analysis, the highest breaking point temperature was obtained for the composite fibers and the least with pure collagen fibers. The HA coated collagen fibers had breaking point temperature between these two fibers. However, tensile modulus was seen to be highest for pure collagen fibers and the least for the composite fibers. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed on the fibers to monitor the weight reduction with respect to temperature. The highest reduction was obtained with pure collagen fibers and the least with the composite fibers. HA coating on the collagen fibers was evident from X-ray diffraction analysis and EP-DIC images. This study showed a new method of coating collagen fibers with HA crystals. CgIHA composite fibers were spun for the first time using Wet-Spinning apparatus. With thermal analysis it was evident that HA has low load bearing property and high melting point temperature. Osteoconduction and Osteoinduction are needed to be done on these fibers as a future work.