Facile synthesis of copper doping hierarchical hollow porous hydroxyapatite beads by rapid gelling strategy

Calcium phosphate based ceramic materials are widely used in bone tissue engineering. Till now, it remains an unmet challenge to construct monodispersed hollow porous calcium phosphate beads through facile and scalable-production strategy. Herein, a rapid gelling strategy is used to combine the guar gum and metal hydroxide, which helps to prepare hollow hierarchical porous hydroxyapatite beads. Results show that the concentration of copper ions and calcination temperature greatly affect the microstructure transformation of the product. Higher concentrations of copper ions lead to the growth of hollow structures, and these ceramic beads exhibit excellent biocompatibility and antibacterial properties. The structure evolution of the products is systematically investigated, and a formation mechanism has been proposed. •Hierarchical hollow porous hydroxyapatite beads have been synthesized by rapid gelling process.•Metal hydroxide plays key role in the crosslinking of guar gum.•CuHA beads owns excellent biocompatibility and antibacterial property.