Porous HA/Alumina composites intended for bone-tissue engineering

Ceramic biomaterials based on hydroxyapatite (HA) or alumina have been intensively studied due to their load-bearing applications in the bone-tissue replacement/reconstruction and dental applications.Here we present a study of the preparation and properties of HA/alumina (HA/Al) composites with a targeted porosity.The HA powder used for the composite's preparation was synthetized via a precipitation method under a variety of pH values.The resulting powders were verified with XRD, Raman and FTIR analyses.The particle size was assessed via SEM and laser diffraction.The as-prepared HA nanopowder and alumina powder (median 3 μm) were homogenously mixed having a composition of HA/Alumina = 90/10 (w/w).A suspension with 65 % mass fraction of the powders was properly mixed and, with the help of foaming agents, it was foamed in situ.The behavior under an increasing temperature was studied, using a heating microscope and dried foams were sintered under determined temperatures.The final sintered foams were examined in vitro in a synthetic body fluid, which predicted the behavior of bone implants in vivo.The behavior of the treated samples was studied with SEM.The newly formed HA composites were confronted with Ca 2+ and PO4 3-contents in the applied body-fluid solution.Keywords: hydroxyapatite/