Development of Beta-Tricalcium Phosphate Bioglass Composite Scaffold

This project is aimed towards the developing composite of -TCP and 45S5 bioglass composite scaffold with varying porosity. -TCP is of resorbable nature in vivo with the new bone growth. It also has greater mechanical strength and closely resembles the structure of mineral of natural bone which makes it an ideal material for developing a scaffold. Bioglass, in terms of bioactivity the 45S5 bioglass shows higher bioactivity than -TCP. Moreover, with the addition of 45S5 bioglass in to -TCP many properties like mechanical or biological can be tailored. Being a glass, 45S5 can also modify the microstructure of a scaffold which can affect different physicochemical as well as biological properties. Hence, the project is aim towards developing -TCP based scaffold with incorporation of 45S5 bioglass. The bioglass amount has been fixed to 5%, 10% and 15%. -TCP powder is synthesized by co-precipitation method (wet chemical route) and synthesis of 45S5 Bioglass powder was done by melt quench method. The scaffolds of the composites were prepared by uni-axial pressing method. Naphthalene is used as a pore former for making the scaffolds porous. 30% & 50% naphthalene were added by weight percentage to the composition. XRD analysis was carried out to check the phase formation behavior of the powder as well as for the composite scaffold. Apparent Porosity and Bulk Density of the different sintered samples were also measured. Brazilian Disc Test for diametral tensile strength, 3 Point Flexural Test and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (using 3 point fixture) were performed to study the mechanical properties of the composite. FESEM was done to study the variation of microstructure of the scaffolds. Hap precipitation behavior of the composite scaffolds was studied by soaking the scaffolds in SBF solution for 21 days followed by FESEM analysis.