Desenvolvimento de biocompósitos de hidroxiapatita (HAp) / poliéter-éter-cetona (PEEK) para aplicações biomédicas

Abstract

Studies aimed at the development of composite biomaterials for bone tissue repair have the advantage of associating the properties of each material used and better meeting the requirements for each application. Biomaterials used as bone tissue substitutes must have characteristics such as biocompatibility, biodegradability and osteoconductibility. Among the materials used to obtain composites, hydroxyapatite, which is a biocompatible ceramic that has similarities with the mineral component of bones, and polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK), a thermoplastic polymer with high thermal stability, modulus of elasticity similar to bone and biocompatible. The objective of this work was to develop PEEK/HAp composites in order to obtain a bone loss substitute material and evaluate its physicochemical properties in different proportions (20, 40 and 60%m/v of HAp). Samples of composites were developed in different proportions and characterized by vibrational absorption spectroscopy in the infrared region with Fourier transform (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), apparent porosity and mechanical strength. The results obtained show that the increase in the addition of HAp to PEEK, enabled a change in the modification of PEEK morphology, increasing porosity. All composites showed good compressive strength, with the composite with 40% HAp being the most satisfactory, as it presented better results for application as a biomaterial.