Calcium phosphate porous ceramic scaffolds reinforced by composite gelatin coating

The calcium phosphate porous ceramic scaffolds with high porosity for the bone tissue engineering were fabricated by the foam impregnation technology, and the composite scaffolds composed of ceramic and gelatin were gained by coating the porous ceramic samples with gelatin solution. It was found that gelatin coatings were formed on the pore walls of porous scaffold samples successfully without destroying their porous characteristic, but these coatings improved the compressive strength and compressive modulus of the samples. The scaffolds, coated with gelatin, were characterized by their nonlinear fractural behavior under compressive loading. Especially, the compressive strength value and the compressive modulus value of porous samples coated with 5% gelatin solution were improved from ~1.04MPa and ~0.105GPa to 5.17MPa and 0.325GPa respectively with the high porosity (82.8%) maintained. The results indicate that the gelatin coatings on the surface of pores reinforce the porous ceramic scaffolds effectively.