Investigation of microstructure and mechanical properties of PLLA/HA system

The poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), carboxymethyl starch (CMS) and hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanofibers have been prepared by electrospinning technique. The PLLA/CMS formulations applied at various voltage were studied for electrospinning into nanofibers. It was found that the morphology of the fibers became finer with the increment of voltage applied. The formulation with 10 kV voltage was selected as it shows promising result based on the morphology observation. The PLLA/CMS/HA formulation with HA loading concentration (i.e. 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 wt%) was fabricated in the next stage, and the effect of HA addition was studied. Observation showed that the electrospun nanofibers’ diameters were reduced with the addition of HAp concentration from 0.25 wt% HAp to 1.00 wt% Hap.