Preparation of Ordered‐Porous Hydroxyapatite/ β‐Tricalcium Phosphate Composites and Assessment of Sustained Drug‐Release Performance

Abstract Hydroxyapatite(HA) has received more and more attention as a drug carrier due to its excellent biocompatibility and bioactivity. However, the poor biodegradability of HA, low drug loading and uncontrollable release rate limits its application. In this paper, in order to study the effect of different HA and tricalcium phosphate (β‐TCP) phase contents on the drug release performance of the composite, co precipitation template method was used to prepare the composite with different Ca/P ratios (1.5~1.63) using polystyrene colloids as templates, and the Ca/P ratio which had the greatest effect on its morphology was selected. With the ibuprofen (IBU) as the drug model, the results showed that the IBU‐loading performance of the composite was significantly better than that of the ordered‐porous pure phase HA. When the Ca/P ratio was 1.5, the composite had the highest adsorption capacity for IBU, reaching 94.5 mg/g. In vitro release tests revealed that IBU release rates from composites with different Ca/P ratios were slower than those from pure‐phase HA in the initial 10 h, and reached the release equilibrium after the subsequent 30 h. Then, when the Ca/P ratio was 1.5, the composite had a cumulative release rate of 86.35 % for IBU. The loading and slow release properties of this ordered porous HA/β‐TCP composite for IBU make it a potential candidate for controlled release of IBU in the future.”