Preparation and mineralization of three-dimensional carbon nanofibers from bacterial cellulose as potential scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Nanofibers exist widely in human tissue and designing three-dimensional (3-D) nanofibrous tissue engineering has important implications. For the first time to our knowledge, this article described the construction of 3-D nanofibrous carbon scaffolds for potential bone tissue regeneration which are composed of carbon nanofiber (CNF) and hydroxyapatite (HAp). CNFs were obtained by carbonization under inert conditions with 3-D bacterial cellulose nanofibers as starting carbon sources. The resulting CNFs showed 3-D fibrous structural features with diameter ranging from 10 to 20 nm. In vitro biomineralization process was performed on the surface-treated 3-D CNFs. The resultant CNF/HAp composites were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microcopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that surface treatment of CNFs in nitric acid promoted the mineralization and changed the morphology of HAp formed on CNFs.