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Concept
Mechanical properties of biomaterials
Summary
Materials that are used for biomedical or clinical applications are known as biomaterials. The following article deals with fifth generation biomaterials that are used for bone structure replacement. For any material to be classified for biomedical applications, three requirements must be met. The first requirement is that the material must be biocompatible; it means that the organism should not treat it as a foreign object. Secondly, the material should be biodegradable (for in-graft only); the material should harmlessly degrade or dissolve in the body of the organism to allow it to resume natural functioning. Thirdly, the material should be mechanically sound; for the replacement of load-bearing structures, the material should possess equivalent or greater mechanical stability to ensure high reliability of the graft.
The biomaterial term is used for materials that can be used in biomedical and clinical applications. They are bioactive and biocompatible in nature. Currently, many types of metals and alloys (stainless steel, titanium, nickel, magnesium, Co–Cr alloys, Ti alloys), ceramics (zirconia, bioglass, alumina, hydroxyapatite) and polymers (acrylic, nylon, silicone, polyurethane, polycaprolactone, polyanhydrides) are used for load bearing applications. This includes dental replacements and bone joining or replacements for medical and clinical application. Therefore, their mechanical properties are very important. Mechanical properties of some biomaterials and bone are summarized in Table 1. Among them, hydroxyapatite is most widely studied bioactive and biocompatible material. However, it has lower Young's modulus and fracture toughness with a brittle nature. Hence, it is required to produce a biomaterial with good mechanical properties.
Elastic modulus is simply defined as the ratio of stress to strain within the proportional limit. Physically, it represents the stiffness of a material within the elastic range when tensile or compressive loads are applied.
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