Synthesis Of Bone-Like Css-Hr3-Zro3 Lab Report

2. Experimental
2.1. Experimental procedure for the synthesis of bone-like CS-PEG-HA-ZrO2 nanocomposites (BNC I-III).
At first, ZrO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by using the previously reported method [16]. Briefly, aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide (purchased from HiMedia Private Ltd.) (40 ml 0.05M) was slowly added in zirconium oxychloride octahydrate (purchased from Merck India Ltd.) solution (100 ml 0.01M) prepared in methanol-water (1:1) at 5 oC temperature. The mixture was stirred for 1 hour followed by reflux at 100 oC for 24 hours. The resultant solid-solution was centrifuged, washed with ammonium nitrate (purchased from Merck India Ltd.), distilled water and ethanol (purchased from Merck India Ltd.) followed by drying
At first, appropriate amount of CS (purchased from Acros Organics, molecular weight 230 KDa, 86 % deacetylated) was dissolved in 85 % formic acid (purchased from Merck India Ltd.) and stirred vigorously to make a homogeneous solution. After 1 hour, different amount of PEG was added to that CS solution. Aqueous solution of HA-ZrO2 was then added to that mixture. The resulting mixture was stirred for 14 hours at room temperature to get a homogenous mixture and then transferred to petri-dishes. The film was obtained by evaporation of formic acid at room temperature. It was further dried at 50 oC for 24
The ratio of CS, PEG and HA-ZrO2 in BNC I-III.

2.2. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis
Determination of the functional groups present in the individual components in BNC I-III was done using attenuated total reflectance (ATR) method of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), model Alpha-E, Bruker, Germany. For this study, samples were scanned with a scanning range of 4000-450 cm−1.

2.3. Powder X-ray diffraction study
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of BNC I-III were obtained using Goniometer Miniflex, JAPAN with Cu Kα radiation, operating at 40 kV voltage and 30 mA current. Samples were analyzed in the 2θ angle range of 5-70o.

2.4. Size and morphological analysis
The morphology and size of nano-ZrO2 was studied by Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), model JEOL JSM7600F. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis was done to determine the morphology and pore dimensions of prepared nanocomposites (BNC I-III). SEM was performed using EVO-18, Carl-Zeiss instrument. For both of these analyses, samples were mounted on a base plate and coated with gold using an ion sputter, model E-1010, Hitachi,