The impact of Cu(II) ions doping in nanostructured hydroxyapatite powder: A finite element modelling study for physico-mechanical and biological property evaluation

[Display omitted] •Comprehensive study of Cu-HAp nano-powders for promising biomedical applications.•Optimized Cu-HAp exhibits enhanced drug interaction with excellent bioactivity.•Finite element modeling data well correlated with experimental mechanical results.•Fabricated Cu-HAp scaffold shows excellent cellular attachment and proliferation. The synthesis ofdoped nanostructured materialswith multifunctional properties and improved biocompatibility have immense potential for biomedical applications.In this present study, a facile wet chemical precipitation method was employed to synthesize hydroxyapatite (HAp) and different concentrations copper doped HAp, and Cux-HAp (x = 1, 2, and 4 mol%) nano materials. Sophisticated analytical and spectroscopic techniques were employed to confirm its physico-chemical properties, and morphological features. The synthesized HAp, Cux-HAp were further studied as a drug nanocarrier using doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) as a model drug, which results a maximum drug release of ∼34.3% (at pH 4.5) for 1 mol% of Cu-HAp. The nanostructured materials were further used to fabricate scaffolds by employing gel-castingmethod.The finite element modeling theoretical approach was adopted, to correlate the force distribution over the developed scaffold during mechanical characterization. The in vitro study confirmed the nontoxic behavior of the HAp and Cux-HAp scaffolds using MG-63 cell line. The developed scaffold effectively facilitates and simulates the new cell attachment, growth, and proliferation on its surface with adequate (∼7.87 MPa) compressive strengthproperties. The enhanced biocompatibility with improved mechanical stability of Cux-HAp nanomaterials could address some of the critical challenges in biomedical applications.