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It is a tough material made up of hard rigid spherical nano-particles with large pores, which are highly compressible but spring back to their original shape. The particles are enmeshed in a polymer gel, making it deformable but also elastic to give shape to the scaffold.
The junction and bridges surrounding the voids are made of hard nano-particles trapped in a polymer mesh. The polymer mesh makes the scaffold soft and deformable. 95% of the scaffold is Nano-P which are hard particles of inorganic materials like SiO2. If the scaffold is entirely made up of solid material like Calcium phosphate or SiO2, it would be brittle. The large voids make the substance very light.
We aim to extend this study to understand the mechanical properties of Bones or Shells(of marine living organisms) and correlate them to their microscopic structure.
As scaffolds!
As scaffolds!
Polymeric nanocomposites that has ceramic/metallic nanoparticles dispersed in polymer matrix are widely used as scaffolds in tissue engineering that mimics the extra cellular matrix of tissues. Polymers are mostly used being biocompatible and biodegradable, but since polymers can't achieve the mechanical properties of bone , polymeric nanocomposites are employed.
Bone replacement is often done for age related disorders and other severe medical conditions (osteoporosis etc). The mineral component of bones being Hydroxyapatite is prepared easily in a laboratory, but since it is a ceramic, it is too brittle to be used on its own for large-scale applications. Hence, Composites of hydroxyapatite with degradable polymers are used, which resorb over time and allow bone to regrow and fill the space.
Below is a publication that details tissue engineering application:
de Azevedo Gonçalves Mota, R.C., da Silva, E.O. and de Menezes, L.R. (2018) Polymer Nanocomposites Used as Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Regeneration. Materials Sciences and Applications, 9, 679-697. https://doi.org/10.4236/msa.2018.98049
you can find compositions of different types of bones and shells here:
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