A Joint Experimental and Theoretical Study on Structural, Vibrational and Morphological Properties of Newly Synthesized Nanocomposites Involving Hydroxyapatite-alt-Polyethylene Glycol (HAP/PEG)

In this paper, we report the synthesis and characterization of new nanocomposite materials based on hydroxyapatite (HAP) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) with two different ratios (80/20 and 60/20). The structural properties of the synthesized nanocomposite (HAP/PEG) compound based on chemical composition and morphological features of the surface were analyzed using advanced techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy-Energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), which all confirmed the formation of the composite. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) computational codes are used, in practice, to predict the structural, optoelectronic properties and quantum chemical parameters of the synthesized nanocomposite compounds. Our results revealed that the nanostructured composite materials containing the fragile HAP (with a weak hardness value) and the rigid PEG (with a strong hardness value) led to the development of a novel nanocomposite material exhibiting improved hardness compared to pure HAP. Moreover, the HAP/PEG nanocomposite exhibited a high level of molecular stability.