Strengthening of deformable bone cements in the calcium phosphates–chitosan system by tricalcium phosphate granules

Abstract

The possibility of strengthening chitosan-containing calcium phosphate bone cements sintered with tricalcium phosphate granules was studied. The strength was found to depend on the granules content in a nonmonotonic manner. For materials reinforced with 300–500 µm granules in the amount of 20 wt %, the compression strength of about 15 MPa was reached on day 14 of air hardening, which was 50% higher than that of the unreinforced cement matrix. The main crystalline phase of the cement matrix is amorphous calcium phosphate. Dissolution of cement in isotonic saline corresponds to first-order reaction kinetics.