Grafting of poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(butylene terephthalate) block copolymers onto hydroxyapatite particles.

Biodegradable HA composite systems based on PEOT/PBT have attracted much attention [1]. Making use of the reactivity of surface hydroxyl groups, PEOT/PBT [2] copolymers have been grafted to HA particles using diisocyanate coupling agents. This resulted in improved mechanical properties of composites. In this study, we set out to covalently bind 1000PEOT70PBT30 to HA by direct surface grafting via polycondensation, avoiding the use of potentially harmful coupling agents or additional modifications of the particle surface. We aim at preparing porous PEOT/ PBT scaffolds for bone tissue engineering that can be seeded and cultured with bone marrow stromal cells before implantation in the bone defect.