A fuzzy analysis for porous bioceramic-magnetite nanoparticles-zirconia scaffold prepared by space holder technique with poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) coating: Investigation of mechanical and biological properties

Abstract

Many efforts were made to make the biodegradable implants for bone repair in the last two decades. In this study, coral aragonite were successfully used to replace broken bones as these materials can make strong chemical bonds with soft tissues and bone. Among them, calcium-based ceramics have been important in terms of their ability to form the strong chemical bonds with tissues and bones. In this research, the porous scaffold is made from marine coral (calcium carbonate) composed of the magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) and zirconia nanoparticles by space holder method under hot system pressing with a uniaxial hydraulic press. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis are performed to evaluate the phase, structure, and morphology of samples. The biological investigation of sample performed using phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and simulated body fluid (SBF) test was used to evaluate the ability of apatite formation and biodegradation on the porous scaffolds. The sample without any reinforcement shows a compressive strength of about 1.3–1.4 MPa at a strain rate of 10% and a fracture strength of 1.7 MPa. Moreover, the sample with MNPs reinforcement shows higher compressive strength than the sample containing zircon nanoparticles with 7.4 MPa at the strain of about 32 MPa. The porosity results of the samples examined under SEM images show that the porosity reduced from 65% to 58%, and the pore size was about 100–200 μm. A fuzzy logic modeling is also used to predict the outputs for any set of input values using the experimental data in this study. The results show that the developed model is a precise one, and the fuzzy modeling method can be used in similar studies.