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Nanostructured hollow spheres of hydroxyapatite: preparation and potential application in drug delivery

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Abstract

A solvothermal method has been successfully used to prepare nanostructured hydroxyapatite (HA) hollow spheres with average diameters of about 500 nm and shell thicknesses of about 100 nm in a glycerin/water mixed solvent. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images show that the shells of the HA hollow spheres are actually composed of nanosheets with thicknesses of about 10 nm. By tuning the glycerin/water volume ratio, two other kinds of HA solid spheres with average diameters of about 6 or 20 μm were assembled from nanoflakes. The properties of the different kinds of spheres as drug delivery carriers were evaluated. Ibuprofen (IBU) was chosen as the model drug to load into the HA samples. The nanostructured HA samples showed a slow and sustained release of IBU. The HA hollow spheres exhibited a higher drug loading capacity and more favorable release properties than the HA solid spheres and thus are very promising for controlled drug release applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Xiaojing Zhang, Weixin Zhang, Zeheng Yang & Zhao Zhang

  2. Anhui Key Laboratory of Controllable Chemical Reaction & Material Chemical Engineering, Hefei, 230009, China

    Xiaojing Zhang, Weixin Zhang, Zeheng Yang & Zhao Zhang

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  1. Xiaojing Zhang
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  2. Weixin Zhang
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  3. Zeheng Yang
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  4. Zhao Zhang
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Correspondence to Weixin Zhang.

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Zhang, X., Zhang, W., Yang, Z. et al. Nanostructured hollow spheres of hydroxyapatite: preparation and potential application in drug delivery. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 6, 246–252 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-012-1299-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-012-1299-9

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