Biomorphic transformation to obtain hierarchical porous structures

Hydroxyapatite (HA) bone scaffolds characterized by highly organized hierarchical structures have been obtained by chemically transforming native woods through a sequence of thermal and hydrothermal processes. The five steps of the phase transformation process have been set up in order to achieve total phase conversion and purity maintaining the original native microstructure. The composition of the final wood-derived scaffolds was carbonated apatite hierarchically structured in parallel fastened hollow microtubules. The biomimetic composition and the highly anisotropic morphology and open-pore geometry obtained by biomorphic transformation confer potentially improved biomechanical characteristics to these new inorganic bone scaffolds, thus they can represent potential solutions for regenerating long and load-bearing bone segments.