Abstract
In the present study, porous titanium-20 wt.% hydroxyapatite nanocomposites were produced by the combination of mechanical alloying and powder metallurgical process with the addition of titanium hydride particles as the blowing agent. The powder mixture of Ti, HA and spacer particles were milled, pressed and heat-treated to decompose the hydride particles and to sinter into highly porous Ti-HA materials. The resulting microstructures were characterized using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive spectrometry. The porosity, compressive strength and corrosion resistance of the porous nanocomposites were investigated. The results show that the compressive strength of porous Ti-HA can be tailored between 210 and 497 MPa by changing the content of blowing agent between 25 and 75%. The increase in the weight ratio of titanium hydride (from 25 to 75%) causes almost a twofold increase in the porosity and decreases the corrosion resistance (by almost two orders of magnitude). The present study has demonstrated that the porous Ti-HA nanocomposites are promising scaffold biomaterials for bone tissue engineering by virtue of their appropriate mechanical and corrosion properties and highly porous structure.
Highlights
There is a high demand for biomaterials to assist the replacement of diseased bones in the body
During MA process, the powder particles of Ti and HA are periodically trapped between colliding balls and are plastically deformed what occurs by the generation of a wide number of dislocations as well as other lattice defects
A number of reports have emphasized the formation of porous materials with wide gradient of porosity, and our present study showed the formation of porous nanocomposites mainly with macropore size and a negligible share of mesopores
Summary
There is a high demand for biomaterials to assist the replacement of diseased bones in the body. Many studies on the use of metals, ceramics or polymers as artificial implant biomaterials have been done Both ceramics and polymeric materials have relatively low-strength properties which limit their use as bone replacement implants. One of the methods that allow the change and further improvement in the interaction between porous titanium and natural tissues is to produce a composite containing ceramic phase—hydroxyapatite (HA). In this case, titanium provides mechanical properties, while HA assures biocompatibility. Our earlier works (Ref 15-17) showed that titanium-ceramic nanocomposites, produced by mechanical alloying and powder metallurgical method, possess greater Vickers hardness, lower YoungÕs modulus, better corrosion resistant and good biocompatibility compared to microcrystalline titanium. The porous structures and some properties of the fabricated samples were examined, and the obtained results are discussed
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