Synthesis and 3D Interconnected Nanostructured h-BN-Based Biocomposites by Low-Temperature Plasma Sintering: Bone Regeneration Applications

C Gautam and D Chakravarty and A Gautam and CS Tiwary and CF Woellner and VK Mishra and N Ahmad and S Ozden and S Jose and S Biradar and R Vajtai and R Trivedi and DS Galvao and PM Ajayan, ACS OMEGA, 3, 6013-6021 (2018).

DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.8b00707

Recent advances and demands in biomedical applications drive a large amount of research to synthesize easily scalable low-density, high- strength, and wear-resistant biomaterials. The chemical inertness with low density combined with high strength makes h-BN one of the promising materials for such application. In this work, three-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) interconnected with boron trioxide (B2O3) was prepared by easily scalable and energy efficient spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The composite structure shows significant densification (1.6-1.9 g/cm(3)) and high surface area (0.97-14.5 m(2)/g) at an extremely low SPS temperature of 250 degrees C. A high compressive strength of 291 MPa with a reasonably good wear resistance was obtained for the composite structure. The formation of strong covalent bonds between h-BN and B2O3 was formulated and established by molecular dynamics simulation. The composite showed significant effect on cell viability/proliferation. It shows a high mineralized nodule formation over the control, which suggests its use as a possible osteogenic agent in bone formation.

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