Fig. 2: Morphology and characterisation of SF and SF/MgO composite scaffolds.

a Macro-morphology and SEM image of SF-1nMgO composite scaffolds; energy-dispersive spectrometry maps and spectra of the SF-1nMgO composite scaffolds; red frame and blue arrows indicate the surface and the pore wall of the scaffolds; green and blue correspond to elemental oxygen (O) and Mg, respectively. b FTIR spectra of the MgO, SF and SF/MgO scaffolds. c Conformation contents of SF and SF/MgO scaffolds from peak deconvolution analysis of the amide I region. d XRD patterns of the MgO, SF and SF/MgO scaffolds. e Macroscopic appearance of SF, SF-1nMgO and SF-3nMgO scaffolds after degradation in protease XIV solutions at different time points (7, 14, 21, 28 d). f Quantitative statistics of degradation rates of SF, SF-1nMgO and SF-3nMgO scaffolds. g Zeta potential of SF, SF-1nMgO and SF-3nMgO solutions. h Accumulative Mg²⁺ release from SF-1nMgO and SF-3nMgO scaffolds immersed in SBF for different time lengths. i pH value monitoring of SF-1nMgO scaffolds and SF-3nMgO scaffolds during immersion in SBF solution. Values in (c, d, f, g, h, i) represent the mean ± standard deviation (SD). Statistical difference was determined by two-tailed unpaired Student’s T-test between two groups. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a Tukey’s post hoc test for multiple comparisons. n = 3 independent replicates from three samples. Source data and exact P values are provided as a source data file. (ns: P > 0.05, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001).