Biomimetic hierarchical growth and self-assembly of hydroxyapatite/titania nanocomposite coatings and their biomedical applications

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Novel 'bowtie' like biomimetic HA/TiO₂ nanocomposite coatings were prepared. • Simple sol–gel method was used to achieve this novel structure. • Details analysis confirms the formation of bowtie like structure in many ways. • Their functional analysis showed their enhanced activity for biomedical application. - Abstract: This article describes a systematic study of the biomimetic hierarchical growth of hydroxyapatite (HA)/titania (TiO₂) nanocomposite layered coatings applied by a simple sol–gel dip coating method. Highly stable HA and TiO₂ sols were prepared prior to inducing biomimetic hierarchical growth. Initially, the samples formed a small leaf like structure; however, increasing the dipping cycle resulted in formation of an elongated seed-like structure. Increasing the number of dipping cycles further resulted in a 'bowtie' or straw-bale like nanowire structure with a length of 500 nm and a width of 100 nm. Each nanowire like structure had a width of very few nanometers. The crystalline structures, micro/nano structures and surface properties of the coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy respectively. In vitro cellular assays revealed that the growth of the cells in the 'bowtie' like structure improved over other samples