Dopamine-modified highly porous hydroxyapatite microtube networks with efficient near-infrared photothermal effect, enhanced protein adsorption and mineralization performance.

In the last decade, the porous hydroxyapatite (HAP) scaffold has been investigated for the application in tissue engineering owing to its good bioactivity and high biocompatibility. In this work, the dopamine-modified highly porous hydroxyapatite microtube three-dimensional (3-D) networks with efficient near-infrared photothermal effect, enhanced protein adsorption and mineralization performance have been prepared through a facile method. The dopamine-modified highly porous HAP networks exhibit ultrahigh porosity (90.6%), uniform pore distribution, interconnected pore structure and outstanding mechanical properties. After being modified with dopamine, the protein adsorption amount, cell attachment performance, and mineralization ability of the dopamine-modified highly porous HAP network can be greatly improved. In addition, the as-prepared dopamine-modified highly porous HAP networks exhibit good biocompatibility, excellent near-infrared photothermal effect, and good mechanical properties. The experimental results indicate that the dopamine-modified highly porous HAP networks are promising for various applications.