Author’s Accepted Manuscript

Hydrothermal synthesis of nanorod-assembled

porous microspheres of hydroxyapatite/casein using
ATP as a phosphorus source and casein sodium salt
as a template

Guan-Jun Ding, Ying-Jie Zhu, Guo-Feng Cheng,

Yin-Jie Ruan, Chao Qi, Tuan-Wei Sun, Jin Wu,
Feng Chen www.elsevier.com

PII: S0167-577X(15)30318-9
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2015.07.126
Reference: MLBLUE19324
To appear in: Materials Letters
Received date: 1 June 2015
Accepted date: 24 July 2015
Cite this article as: Guan-Jun Ding, Ying-Jie Zhu, Guo-Feng Cheng, Yin-Jie
Ruan, Chao Qi, Tuan-Wei Sun, Jin Wu and Feng Chen, Hydrothermal synthesis
of nanorod-assembled porous microspheres of hydroxyapatite/casein using ATP
as a phosphorus source and casein sodium salt as a template, Materials Letters,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2015.07.126
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Hydrothermal synthesis of nanorod-assembled porous microspheres of hydroxyapatite/casein

using ATP as a phosphorus source and casein sodium salt as a template

Guan-Jun Ding, Ying-Jie Zhu*, Guo-Feng Cheng, Yin-Jie Ruan, Chao Qi, Tuan-Wei Sun, Jin Wu, Feng Chen

State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics,

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, P. R. China

* Corresponding author. Tel: +86-21-52412616; Fax: +86-21-52413122, E-mail: y.j.zhu@mail.sic.ac.cn (Y. J. Zhu)

Abstract

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is a promising biomaterial with various applications in the biomedical fields. Herein,

nanorod-assembled porous microspheres of HAP/casein have been prepared using adenosine 5’-triphosphate disodium

salt (Na2ATP) as a phosphorus source, calcium chloride as a calcium source in the presence of casein sodium salt as a

template by the hydrothermal method. This method is simple, surfactant-free and environment-friendly. The effect of

hydrothermal time on the morphology and crystal phase of the product was investigated. The as-prepared products were

characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared

(FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TG). The as-prepared HAP/casein nanorod-assembled porous

microspheres have promising applications in the biomedical fields.

Keywords: biomaterials; nanocrystalline materials; hydroxyapatite; nanorods; hydrothermal

1. Introduction

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) biomaterials, the major inorganic component in vertebrates, have attracted increasing attention

in biomedical fields due to their advantages such as high biocompatibility [1,2]. In the past years, diverse methods,

including the hydrothermal method [3], microwave-assisted technique [4], polymer-assisted synthesis [5], sonochemical

method [6] etc., have been reported to prepare various HAP materials. Among various HAP materials with different

morphologies, HAP porous microspheres are promising drug carrier in the drug delivery systems because of their

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advantages including large specific surface area, high drug loading capacity and nanochannels for drug loading and

controlled drug release. The template-directed synthesis has been demonstrated as a versatile approach for the synthesis

of HAP porous nanostructures, and various templates including inorganic structures [7,8], block copolymer [9], micelles

[10], liposomes [11] etc., are used for the preparation of HAP porous structures. Although some progress has been made,

the development of new environment-friendly template methods for the fabrication of HAP nanostructured porous

microspheres is still desirable. Casein is one of basic commercial milk proteins. Due to its typical micelle structure and

heat-induced deamidation, dephosphorylation and breakdown of caseinate [12,13], casein can serve as a good template.

Xu et al. [14] reported the preparation of hollow magnetic supraparticles via casein micelle mediated microwave

irradiation.

Herein, we report the hydrothermal synthesis of HAP/casein nanorod-assembled porous microspheres using Na2ATP as

a phosphorus source and calcium chloride as a calcium source in the presence of casein sodium salt as the template, and

the influence of hydrothermal time on the morphology and crystal phase of the product is studied. This method is simple,

surfactant-free and environment-friendly. We previously reported the rapid microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of

highly stable amorphous calcium phosphate porous nanospheres with a relatively uniform size and an average pore

diameter of about 10 nm using Na2ATP as the phosphorus source and stabilizer. The as-prepared ACP porous

nanospheres had a high stability in the phosphate buffer saline solution for more than 150 h without phase transformation

to hydroxyapatite [15]. It is expected that the as-prepared HAP/casein nanorod-assembled porous microspheres are

promising for the applications in various biomedical fields.

2. Experimental

In a typical experiment, 0.400 g of casein sodium salt was dissolved in 50 mL deionized water, followed by addition of

10 mL aqueous solution containing 0.222 g of anhydrous CaCl2; the above solution was mixed with 10 mL aqueous

solution containing 0.220 g of Na2ATP; then, the pH of the solution was adjusted to 5.0. The final volume of the resulting

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solution was 80 mL with the extra addition of deionized water. The resulting solution was loaded into a 100 mL

Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave, sealed and heated to 120 oC and maintained that temperature for 2, 12, 24, 36, 72 h

and one week, respectively. After cooling down naturally to room temperature, the product was washed with deionized

water three times and collected via centrifugation and freeze-dried.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs were obtained with a transmission electron microscope (TEM,

HITACHI H-800, Japan). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs were obtained with a field-emission

scanning electron microscope (SEM, Hitachi S-4800, Japan). The thermogravimetric (TG) analysis was carried out with

a STA 409/PC simultaneous thermal analyzer (Netzsch, Germany) at a heating rate of 10 oC min-1 in air. Fourier

transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were collected on a FTIR spectrometer (FTIR-700, Lamdba Scientific, Australia).

X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns were recorded using an X-ray diffractometer (Rigaku D/max 2500 V, Cu K α

radiation, λ = 1.54178 Å).

3. Results and Discussion

The crystal phases of the products prepared using 0.400 g of casein sodium salt, 0.222 g of CaCl2 and 0.220 g of

Na2ATP by the hydrothermal method at 120 oC for various hydrothermal times were characterized by XRD, as shown in

Fig. 1. The product obtained by the hydrothermal method at 120 oC for 2 h is amorphous. When the hydrothermal time

increases to 12 h or up to one week, the product contains hydroxyapatite (HAP). The experimental results indicate that

the crystal phase of the product can be controlled by adjusting the hydrothermal time.

The morphologies of the products prepared by the hydrothermal method at 120 oC for 2 h, 12 h, 24 h, 36 h, 72 h and

one week were characterized by SEM and TEM, as shown in Fig. 2. One can see that when the hydrothermal time is 2 h,

the product consists of microspheres with a smooth surface (Fig. 2a and a’). When the hydrothermal time increases to 12

or 24 h, the product is composed of microspheres with a rough surface (Fig. 2b,b’ and 2c,c’). When the hydrothermal

time is 36 h, the product consists of microspheres with a porous morphology (Fig. 2d and d’). When the hydrothermal

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time further increases to 72 h or one week, however, the product is composed of nanorod-assembled porous microspheres

with nanorods as the building blocks (Fig. 2e,e’ and 2f,f’).

Fig. 1. XRD patterns of the products prepared using 0.400 g of casein sodium salt, 0.222 g of CaCl2 and 0.220 g of

Na2ATP by the hydrothermal method at 120 oC for different hydrothermal times of 2 h, 12 h, 24 h, 36 h, 72 h and one

week.

Fig. 3 shows the FTIR spectra of casein sodium salt, Na2ATP and the products prepared by the hydrothermal method at

120 oC for different hydrothermal times. According to the reference [16], the broad absorption peak between 3600 and

3100 cm–1 is ascribed to the free and bounded O–H from adsorbed water molecules. The absorption peak at 1637 cm–1 is

assigned to the stretching vibration of C=O and bending of the NH2 in amide groups from the casein protein. The

absorption peaks at around 1100, 1027, 605 and 560 cm–1 are characteristic bands of PO43- ions in HAP. The absorption

peak at 910 cm–1 comes from the aliphatic asymmetric P–O–C stretching and P–OH stretching in phosphorus ester of

Na2ATP biomolecules. Thus, when the hydrothermal time is 2 h, the product contains the casein protein but not HAP.

When the hydrothermal time is 12 h up to one week, the products contain the casein protein and HAP, which is in

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accordance with XRD results in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. TEM and SEM micrographs of the products prepared by the hydrothermal method at 120 oC for different

hydrothermal times: (a, a’) 2 h, (b, b’) 12 h, (c, c’) 24 h, (d, d’) 36 h, (e, e’) 72 h, and (f, f’) one week.

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Fig. 3. FTIR spectra: (a) casein sodium salt; (b) Na2ATP; (c)-(f) the products prepared by the hydrothermal method at

120 oC for different hydrothermal times: (c) 2 h, (d) 12 h, (e) 24 h, (f) 36 h, (g) 72 h, and (h) one week.

TG curves of the products prepared by the hydrothermal method at 120 oC for different hydrothermal times were

measured, as shown in Fig. 4. In the TG curves of Fig. 4, it is observable that the residual weight percentage of the

inorganic content was 5.0%, 15.1%, 20.8%, 25.7%, 45.9% and 52.5% for the products prepared by the hydrothermal

method at 120 oC for the hydrothermal times of 2 h, 12 h, 24 h, 36 h, 72 h and one week, respectively.

Fig. 4. TG curves of the products prepared by the hydrothermal method at 120 oC for different hydrothermal times of 2 h,

12 h, 24 h, 36 h, 72 h and one week.

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 The possible formation process of the product is proposed as follows: when the calcium chloride aqueous solution is

added into the casein sodium salt aqueous solution, casein micelles, composed of calcium ions and casein, result in the

attractive electrostatic force between calcium ions and phosphate groups of casein. Under the hydrothermal conditions,

casein micelles are not only solidified into microspheres displayed in Fig 1a,a’ via heat-induced protein crosslinking but

also undergo heat-induced breakdown demonstrated in the previous study [12,13]. In addition, the ATP molecules are

hydrolyzed to release phosphate ions, which react with calcium ions to produce amorphous calcium phosphate which

then transform into HAP in aqueous solution. According to the sub-micelle model of micelles [17], the as-produced HAP

appears on phosphate groups of sub-micelles, leading to the formation of nanorod-assembled porous microspheres of

HAP/casein. As the hydrothermal treatment goes on, sub-micelles undergo breakdown, leaving pore cavities in HAP

porous microspheres. During the heat-induced breakdown of casein micelles, some breakdown products may adsorb onto

the HAP surface. The advantages of this preparation method are simple, surfactant-free and environment-friendly. It is

expected that the as-prepared HAP/casein nanorod-assembled porous microspheres are promising for the applications in

various biomedical fields such as drug delivery.

4. Conclusion

We have developed a hydrothermal strategy for the preparation of HAP/casein nanorod-assembled porous

microspheres in the presence of casein sodium salt as a template, calcium chloride as a calcium source and Na 2ATP as a

phosphorus source. Casein sodium salt functions as a template to produce cavities in HAP/casein nanorod-assembled

porous microspheres. The advantages of this strategy are simple, surfactant-free and environment friendly. The

as-prepared HAP/casein nanorod-assembled porous microspheres are promising for the applications in various

biomedical fields such as drug delivery.

Acknowledgements

Financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51172260, 51302294) is gratefully

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acknowledged.

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 Highlights

 Hydroxyapatite/casein nanorod-assembled porous microspheres are reported.

 A hydrothermal synthesis using ATP and casein sodium salt is developed.

 The method reported is simple, surfactant-free and environment-friendly.