A facile approach to construct ferroferric oxide/chitosan composite scaffolds with three-dimensional oriented structure has been explored in this research. Chitosan and ferroferric oxide are co-precipitated by using an

in situ

precipitation method

and then lyophilized to get the composite scaffolds. XRD indicated that Fe

3

O

4

was generated during the gel formation process

and increasing the content of magnetic particles could destruct the crystal structure of chitosan. When the content of magnetic particles is lower than 10%

the layer-by-layer structure and wheel spoke structure are coexisting in the scaffolds. Increasing the content of magnetic particles

just layer-by-layer structure could be observed in the scaffolds. Ferroferric oxide particles were uniformly distributed in the matrix

the size of which was about 0.48 μm in diameter

2 μm in length. Porosity of magnetic chitosan composite scaffolds is about 90%. When the ratio of ferroferric oxide to chitosan is 5/100

the compressive strength of the material is 0.4367 MPa

which is much higher than that of pure chitosan scaffolds

indicating that the layer-by-layer and wheel spokes complex structure is beneficial for the improvement of the mechanical properties of chitosan scaffolds. However

increasing the content of ferroferric oxide

the compressive strength of scaffolds decreased

because of the decreasing of chitosan crystallization and aggregation of magnetic particles as stress centralized body. Another reason is that the layer-by-layer and wheel spokes complex structure makes bigger contributions for the compressive strength than the layer-by-layer structure does. Three-dimensional ferroferric oxide/chitosan scaffolds could be used as hyperthermia generator system

improving the local circulation of blood

promoting the aggradation of calcium salt and stimulating bone tissue regeneration.