Adopting the principles of collagen biomineralization for intrafibrillar infiltration of yttria-stabilized zirconia into three-dimensional collagen scaffolds

In this paper, a process for generating collagen-yttria-stabilized amorphous zirconia hybrid scaffolds by introducing acetylacetone-inhibited zirconia precursor nanodroplets into a poly(allylamine)-coated collagen matrix is reported. This polyelectrolyte coating triggers intrafibrillar condensation of the precursors into amorphous zirconia, which is subsequently transformed into yttria-stabilized zirconia after calcination. These findings represent a new paradigm in the synthesis of non-naturally occurring collagen-based hybrid scaffolds under alcoholic mineralizing conditions. Acac-stablized yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) nano-sized precursors infuse into the fibril and coalesce in the presence of the PAH-crosslinked collagen molecules to form larger-sized precursor droplets. These precursor droplets further condense in the presence of water available within the intrafibrillar compartments of the collagen fibril into amorphous YSZ nanoparticles.