%0 Journal Article %T Produ£¿£¿o de fibras de hidroxiapatite por electrofia£¿£¿o %A Franco %A P. Q. %A Silva %A J.C. %A Borges %A J.P. %J Ci¨ºncia & Tecnologia dos Materiais %D 2010 %I Scientific Electronic Library Online %X this paper reports a new method of producing hydroxyapatite (ha) fibres, combining electrospinning and a non-alcoxide sol-gel system, using cheap precursors. phosphorus pentoxide (p2o5) and calcium nitrate tetrahydrate (ca(no3)2.4h2o) were used as precursors of phosphorus and calcium, respectively. the fibres were electrospun from a mixture of the gel formed from the system ca(no3)2.4h2o/p2o5 with polymeric solutions of polyvinylpyrrolidone (pvp) in water and ethanol/water mixtures. the fibres were analyzed for their morphology (scanning electron microscopy, sem), chemical composition (fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ftir) and structure (x-ray diffraction, xrd). nano and microfibres were obtained, composed mainly of type b carbonated ha with traces of calcium oxide (cao) and ¦Â-tricalcium phosphate (¦Â-tcp). from sem analysis it was found that higher concentration of pvp in the electrospinning solutions leads to the formation of cylindrical fibres and that a larger amount of water allows for smaller diameter fibres and narrow diameters distribution. ha fibres produced have potential use either in biotechnology (eg. ion-exchange membranes) and biomedicine (eg. scaffolds for tissue engineeering). %K hydroxyapatite %K sol-gel %K electrospinning %K microfibres %K nanofibres. %U http://www.scielo.gpeari.mctes.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0870-83122010000100006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en