Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 2.3
Silicate bioceramic scaffolds prepared by the polyurethane foam templating method.
have good mechanical strength, the main disadvantage of the CaSiO
3
scaf-
folds prepared by this method is that the pores are not uniform and intercon-
nective (Lin et al. 2004), which is compromised for efficient cell infiltration
and tissue ingrowths and nutrient transportation (Hutmacher 2000). We
prepared CaSiO
3
, CaMgSi
2
O
6
, Ca
2
MgSi
2
O
7
, Ca
7
MgSi
4
O
16
, and Ca
7
Si
2
P
2
O
16
scaffolds with large pore size and high interconnectivity (see Figure 2.3) by
using the polyurethane foam templating method; however, the main short-
coming of this method is that the prepared scaffolds are not mechanically
strong (Ni et al. 2006). To better control the pore morphology, pore size, and
porosity, a 3D plotting technique (also called direct writing or printing) has
been developed to prepare porous silicate scaffolds. The significant advan-
tage of this technique is that the architectures of the scaffolds can be con-
cisely controlled by layer-by-layer plotting under mild conditions (Miranda
et al. 2006, 2008; Franco et al. 2010). The CaSiO
3
scaffolds prepared by 3D
plotting technique showed highly ordered large pore coordination (Wu et al.
2012; Wu and Chang, forthcoming).
2.2.2 Mechanical Strength of Silicate Bioceramics
The mechanical properties of bioactive materials are of great importance to
influence their osteogenesis. It has been shown that the mechanical strength,
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