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Strength, toughness, and reliability of a porous glass/biopolymer composite scaffold
Author(s) -
Fu Qiang,
Jia Weitao,
Lau Grace Y.,
Tomsia Antoni P.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.33924
Subject(s) - materials science , biopolymer , brittleness , coating , composite material , toughness , scaffold , fracture toughness , polycaprolactone , compressive strength , flexural strength , ceramic , composite number , bioactive glass , polymer , biomedical engineering , medicine
Development of bioactive glass and ceramic scaffolds intended for the reconstruction of large segmental bone defects remains a challenge for materials science due to the complexities involved in clinical implantation, bone–implant reaction, implant degradation and the multiple loading modes the implants subjected to. A comprehensive evaluation of the mechanical properties of inorganic scaffolds and exploration of new ways to toughen brittle constructs are critical prior to their successful application in loaded sites. A simple and widely adopted approach involves the coating of an inorganic scaffold with a polymeric material. In this work, a systematic evaluation of the influence of a biopolymer, polycaprolactone (PCL), coating on the mechanical performance of bioactive glass scaffolds was carried out. Results from this work indicate that a biopolymer PCL coating was more effective in increasing the compressive strength and reliability of the glass scaffold under compression, but less effective in improving its flexural strength or fracture toughness. This is the first report that reveals the limited successfulness of a polymer coating in improving the toughness of strong scaffolds, suggesting that new and novel ways of toughening inorganic scaffolds should be future research directions for scaffolds applied in loaded sites. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1209–1217, 2018.