A Novel Silicate Ceramic-Magnetite Nanocomposite for Biomedical Application

Some of the most common human bone diseases like trauma, bone cracks and tumour, have been able to provide the necessary key information required for designing scaffolds used for replacing a diseased bone. Many of the scaffolds’ properties are mainly associated with the microstructure of material’s microstructure and range of porosity, as well as the dimension of its pores and interconnectivity. Recently, bredigite (Ca7MgSi4O16), a Mg-containing ceramic, has been reported to have an inherent apatite-forming ability and chemical stability for bone tissue engineering application. Moreover, bone reconstruction significantly accelerated by employing thermal and electrical currents in the defect area. Magnetite is a bioresorbable material that has been widely employed within the biomaterials domain; also, it has been used in cancer therapy techniques such as hyperthermia treatment behavior under the temperature change and AC magnetic field. The combination of (0 wt. %, 10 wt. %, 20 wt. % and 30 wt.%) magnetite with bredigite bioceramic resulted in the fabrication of nanocomposite material. Three-dimensional printing (3DP), as a common rapid prototyping technique, can fabricate complex scaffolds structures for bone replacement as well as partake in electrical stimulation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the thermal, electrical, mechanical, biological and magnetic behavior of the bredigite-magnetite scaffold nanocomposite for possible application in bone tissue engineering. The scaffolds was successfully developed with the optimum nanocomposite magnetite content and it was observed that the porosity was increased from 63.1% to 75.9%. The properties of the bredigite-magnetite nanocomposites are: bending strength (148 MPa), fracture toughness (2.69 MPa m1/2) and Young's modulus (29 GPa) i.e. for a sample containing 30 wt.% magnetite. The compressive strength of the sample increased from 1.8 MPa to 3.6 MPa. From the results, it is observed that the higher electrical conductivity (160 μS/m) belongs to the sample with higher percentage of magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs), while the sample without MNPs powder shows the lowest amount of electrical conductivity (35 μS/m). Samples with 30 wt.% magnetite show an increase in temperature of about 25°C within 60 second, while 10 wt.% magnetite sample show an increase of 15°C in an AC magnetic field. Furthermore, the results revealed that the surface morphology and particles interface, have meaningful effects on the bioactivity and biodegradation rate. Therefore, by increasing the magnetite nanoparticles amount and Si ions, the bone-like apatite and degradation rate of the scaffold nanocomposite was enlarged considerably. The findings of this research showed that the nanocomposites with magnetite nanoparticles, have a proper electromagnetic inducements characteristics and are credible candidates for hyperthermia treatment.