The lecture will describe ideas and research activities in the areas of ceramics, bioactive coatings, biodegradable composites and explore the prospects for a new generation of orthopaedic biomaterials. Bone can be considered to be a composite structure over a number of different hierarchical length scales. However, despite the elegance of its structure, bone suffers from a number of degenerative diseases and, with an aging population world-wide, there is a need to find long term solutions for bone replacement.

Bone will bond directly to synthetic hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) in its pure sintered form. One approach to bone repair has been to produce synthetic bone grafts more similar in composition to bone material than pure hydroxyapatite. Building on the ideas of biomimetic materials, developments are under way in the area of bioactive and biodegradable composites. The dimensions of the bioactive reinforcing phase can influence the mechanical and biological performance. Bioactive coatings on metallic and polymeric biomaterials using vacuum plasma spraying, electro hydrodynamic atomization and radio frequency magnetron sputtering are also being investigated to provide surfaces with a range of topographical and compositional characteristics.

Bioactive Ceramics Event Poster