Comparative Analysis of Novel Calcium Phosphate Based Machinable Bioceramic Composites

Abstract

Calcium phosphate is widely used as an implant material in the biomedical field, mainly because they are chemically similar to the inorganic components of bones. In many applications, dimensional accuracy is critical, and implants need to be shaped, sized and machined as needed. However, as ceramic materials with strong atomic bonding forces, they have high hardness and brittleness, so the ability to shape the precise dimensions required for many critical surgical applications is limited. Therefore, these ceramic-based materials cannot compete with other metal or polymer-based systems, and are not very popular in such applications with dimensional accuracy. Therefore, novel machinable ceramic composite materials based on calcium phosphate, viz. hydroxyapatite and β-tricalcium phosphate, containing rare earth phosphates have been manufactured, and their phases, microstructure, mechanical, machining and biological activities have been studied.