Hydroxyapatite grafted carbon nanotubes and graphene nanosheets: promising bone implant materials.

In the present study, hydroxyapatite (HA) was successfully grafted to carboxylated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanosheets. The HA grafted CNTs and HA-graphene nanosheets were characterized using FT-IR, TGA, SEM and X-ray diffraction. The HA grafted CNTs and graphene nanosheets (CNTs-HA and Gr-HA) were further used to examine the proliferation and differentiation rate of temperature-sensitive human fetal osteoblastic cell line (hFOB 1.19). Total protein assays and western blot analysis of osteocalcin expression were used as indicators of cell proliferation and differentiation. Results indicated that hFOB 1.19 cells proliferate and differentiate well in treatment media containing CNTs-HA and graphene-HA. Both CNTs-HA and graphene-HA could be promising nanomaterials for use as scaffolds in bone tissue engineering.