Bioactive nano-titanic ceramics with biomechanical compatibility prepared by doping with piezoelectric BaTiO3

Piezoelectric BaTiO3 was employed as a crystal growth inhibitor additive for the preparation of bioactive nano-titanic ceramics in this study. It is found that the additive could significantly inhibit nano-titanic ceramic crystal growth during the pressureless sintering process. This inhibitory ability has great effects on the mechanical properties and bioactivities of the nano-titanic ceramics, making it possible to obtain bioactive nano-titanic ceramics with mechanical properties analogous to human bone. In this study, the crystal grain sizes of the nano-titanic ceramics ranged from 18 to 68 nm and the particle sizes ranged from 187 to 580 nm by changing the additive content from 1% to 20%. The elastic modulus of the nano-titanic ceramics ranged from 6.2 to 10.6 GPa, which is analogous to that of human bone, by adjusting the additive content. The piezoelectric properties of the additive also showed the enhancing effects on the bioactivity of the nano-titanic ceramics, which made the osteoblasts proliferate faster on the nano-titanic ceramics in cell culture experiments. It might be a potential way to prepare bioactive nano-titanic ceramics with biomechanical compatibility by using BaTiO3 as a crystal growth inhibitor. (C) 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.