Improvement of mechanical and antibacterial features of hydroxyapatite/ chromium oxide/graphene oxide nanocomposite for biomedical utilizations

Chromic oxide (Cr2O3) exhibits outstanding behavior for applications such as glasses, paints, and biomedical applications. Various approaches have been employed in the construction of nanocomposites to meet the applications' requirements. Hydroxyapatite (HAP)/chromium oxide/graphene oxide (GO) composites are characterized by several techniques. The biological applicability carried out by antibacterial performance evaluation. TEM approves that the merge between GO and Cr2O3 into HAP is important in reducing grains agglomerations and raising the introduced surface area. The HAP/Cr2O3/GO has a grain size that varies from 7.3 to 15.6 nm. Additionally, FESEM imaging confirms that adding Cr2O3 composition to HAP/GO to form the ternary composite leads to size reduction and macro-porous structure formation with reducing grain agglomeration. Further, the prepared composites are used as antibacterial agents against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). It was noticed that (HAP/Cr2O3/GO) attained an antibacterial efficiency of 16.4 ± 0.4 mm for E. coli and 16.8 ± 0.4 mm for S. aureus, besides showing the viability of 97.9 ± 0.6% in vitro. Furthermore, the nanocomposite of HAP/Cr2O3/GO represents the highest microhardness with 3.7 ± 0.3 GPa. Obviously, GO addition forms good interfacial bonding with other ingredients allowing an efficient load transfer mechanism. The surface topography, biocompatibility, and antibacterial activity indicate the ability of HAP/Cr2O3/GO to be utilized as an implant in biomedical utilizations.