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Hydroxyapatite (HAp)/polymer composites have been widely investigated for bone substitute applications in recent years. Inspired by the arrangement of ordered organic and inorganic layers in natural bones and seashells, for the first time a novel intercalated nanocomposite of gelatin and lamellar HAp was prepared via solution intercalation process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the basal spacing of HAp lamellas enlarged by 3.0 nm from 3.1 nm to 6.1 nm, indicating that the gelatin molecules had been intercalated into the gallery of lamellar HAp. The microstructures of pure lamellar HAp and intercalated gelatin/HAp nanocomposite were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis revealed that there were chemical interactions between gelatin molecules and HAp. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results confirmed that thermal stability of the composites was enhanced. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009

Natural composite materials such as bones and seashells have been refined and perfected over millions of years of evolutionary selection. Thus they possess many advantages both on micro-structures and macroscopical performances. Inspired by the natural composites, for the first time, laminated hydroxyapatite (HAp)/chitosan (CS) nanocomposites were prepared by means of solution intercalation in this paper. Intercalated and exfoliated structures were obtained by varying CS contents. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) result reveals that there is interaction between HAp and CS. Tensile strength test indicates that the HAp lamellae can improve the poor strength of CS evidently, especially in moist environments. The results reported here can be expanded to other HAp-polymer systems, thus may offer a new approach for fabricating biomimetic nanocomposites.

We report here on the fabrication of a kind of highly cross-linked network structured cuprous oxide microtube lattices (Cu2O–MTLs) by utilizing a bacterial cellulose membrane as a template. The Cu2O–MTLs showed high specific catalytic activity for methylene blue degradation in the presence of H2O2 under dark conditions.