Tunning Surface Hydrophilicity of PVA Nanofiber Bone Scaffolds Via Amino Acid and Nanohydroxyapatite Incorporation:

Rohul Rizki Mubaroq Hartman (Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Science, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia)
Yessie Widya Sari (Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Science, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia)
Yusril Yusuf (Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Science, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)

Spektra: Jurnal Fisika dan Aplikasinya
Vol. 11 No. 1 (2026): SPEKTRA: Jurnal Fisika dan Aplikasinya, Volume 11 Issue 1, April 2026

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer with potential use in bone tissue engineering. However, its excessively high hydrophilicity led to poor cell adhesion, limiting its suitability as a bone scaffold. This study investigates the modification of PVA nanofibers through the incorporation of negatively charged amino acids (aspartic acid, glutamic acid) and nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA) to tailor surface hydrophilicity. Electrospun nanofiber composites of Asp/PVA/nHA and Glu/PVA/nHA were fabricated with varying nHA concentrations. Higher nHA content was found to decrease hydrophilicity, whereby Asp/PVA/nHA and Glu/PVA/nHA with nHA concentration of 3.5% were within the ideal range for optimal cell adhesion and proliferation characterized by contact angle between 40o – 70o. Samples containing Asp exhibited a lower hydrophilicity compared to their respective Glu-containing counterparts, which may correlated to the difference side chain of Asp and Glu structure. Statistically significant differences (p ≤0.05) suggest that nHA and amino acids effectively modulate surface characteristics, supporting the potential of fine-tuning PVA hydrophilicity via nHA and amino incorporation for improved performance in bone tissue engineering applications.