Abstract
Bioactive ceramics attracts attentions as materials for bone implants, because of their high biocompatibility. For example, hydroxyapatite (HA) has bone-bonding ability through the bone like apatite layer formation in body environment, and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) has a high bioresorbability in body environment. In this study, HA/β-TCP composites with different content of β-TCP (0,10,20,30wt%) were prepared by wet mixing of HA and β-TCP powder, compaction of the powders and sintering. Bending strength of HA/β-TCP composites was measured. To improve mechanical properties of HA/β-TCP composites, the effect of additive of SiO_2 and MgO were investigated. It was found that addition of SiO_2 did not improve mechanical properties and bioactivity. On the other hand, addition of MgO improved mechanical properties. As a result of X-ray powder diffraction measurement, it was found that SiO_2 did not react as a sintering additive, on the other hand, MgO changed to CaO due to displacement of Mg to Ca. Furthermore, it was found that the addition of MgO improved mechanical properties of β-TCP in the case of 3wt% of β-TCP.
