Mechanical properties of unidirectional, porous polymer/ceramic composites for biomedical applications
Résumé
The addition of a ductile phase to a porous ceramic can help overcome the brittleness of ceramics. Yet, most studies so far have focused on the processing and characterization of dense composites. Alternatively, unidi-rectional pores can improve the strength of porous ceramics. Here we combine the two approaches and show a simple processing strategy to obtain highly porous, unidirectional ceramic/polymer composites. We infiltrated ice-templated porous zirconia scaffolds with a polymer or a polymer solution. After centrifugation and evapo-ration of the solvent, porous ceramic composites with a porosity greater than 60% were obtained. Our results demonstrate that the addition of a ductile polymer (PCL) can increase both the strength and the toughness of the composites while maintaining a high porosity, whereas a brittle polymer (epoxy) has seemingly no impact on the fracture properties. This approach could provide porous materials that are easier to handle for biomedical applications.
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