Bioactive fluorcanasite reinforced magnesium alloy based porous bio-nanocomposite bone scaffold with controlled degradation

This study deals with the fabrication of magnesium-alloy-based biodegradable porous bone scaffolds. Selected amounts of calcium, zinc and strontium were incorporated into magnesium-metal-matrix as alloying elements to tune the degradation behaviour, while bioactive fluorcanasite nano-particulates were incorporated to promote bone growth. Green compacts with urea porogen were fabricated using the powder metallurgy route, followed by sintering to achieve the desired porosity in the fabricated samples. The microstructure of the fabricated samples was examined by FE-SEM, coupled with EDS, which revealed uniform distribution of pores and alloying elements. Degradation study of the fabricated bio-nanocomposites revealed the retardation of degradation rate, owing to the incorporation of alloying elements. Hydrogen evolution and pH studies of the immersed samples were also found to be in coherence with the degradation behaviour of the samples. These results, therefore, demonstrated that the fabricated magnesium alloy-based bio-nanocomposite scaffolds have promising potential for bone tissue engineering.