title: Fabrication and evaluation of silica-based ceramic scaffolds for hard tissue engineering applications.
abstract: In recent decades, bone scaffolds have received a great attention in biomedical applications due to their critical roles in bone tissue regeneration, vascularization, and healing process. One of the main challenges of using scaffolds in bone defects is the mechanical strength mismatch between the implant and surrounding host tissue which causes stress shielding or failure of the implant during the course of treatment. In this paper, space holder method was applied to synthesize diopside/forsterite composite scaffolds with different diopside content. During the sintering process, NaCl, as spacer agent, gradually evaporated from the system and produced desirable pore size in the scaffolds. The results showed that adding 10wt.% diopside to forsterite can enormously improve the bioactivity, biodegradability, and mechanical properties of the composite scaffolds. The size of crystals and pores of the obtained scaffolds were measured to be in the range 70-100nm and 100-250μm, respectively. Composite scaffolds containing 10wt.% diopside showed similar compressive strength and Young's modulus (4.36±0.3 and 308.15±7MPa, respectively) to that of bone.
authors.affiliation: Materials research Group, Department of Materials engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran.
authors.forename: Sorour
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadeghzade
authors.affiliation: Materials research Group, Department of Materials engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran.
authors.forename: Rahmatollah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Emadi
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering Program, School of Science, Engineering and Technology, Penn State Harrisburg, Middletown, PA 17057, USA. Electronic address: f_tavangarian@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Fariborz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tavangarian
authors.affiliation: Materials research Group, Department of Materials engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran.
authors.forename: Mozhgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naderi
mesh_terms: D018786:Bone Substitutes / Q000737:chemistry*; D002516:Ceramics / Q000737:chemistry*; D012824:Silicic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D017655:Silicon Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D018786:Bone Substitutes; D017655:Silicon Compounds; C503823:forsterite; D012824:Silicic Acid; C074224:diopside
keywords: Bioceramic; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Scaffolds