Alejandra Ramirez Rozo

Former bachelor student

Halloysite nanotubes as reinforcement for natural polymer scaffolds

 

Supervisors: Florencia Diaz, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) are naturally occurring aluminosilicates. Over the years they have been used to improve the mechanical properties of polymeric matrixes [1]. In this work HNTs will be used as a reinforcement for natural polymer scaffolds for tendon repair. The scaffolds will be developed using the Ice segregation induced self-assembly (ISISA) technique and crosslinked using a non-toxic agent. This provides anisotropic scaffolds with aligned pore structures. The goal of this work is to use scaffolds with different HNTs concentrations and utilize different material characterization techniques to find the optimal HNT concentration for this application.

[1] Mingxian Liu, Chongchao Wu, Yanpeng Jiao, Sheng Xiong, Changren Zhou. Chitosan–halloysite nanotubes nanocomposite scaffolds for tissue engineering. J. Mater. Chem. B, 2013, 1, 2078