Browsing by Author "Francis, BF"

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    Nano iron oxide hydroxyapatite composite ceramics with enhanced radiopacit
    (Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine., 2010) Ajeesh, M; Francis, BF; John, A; Varma, PRH
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    Nano iron oxide-hydroxyapatite composite ceramics with enhanced radiopacity
    (JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE-MATERIALS IN MEDICINE, 2010) Ajeesh, M; Francis, BF; Annie, J; Varma, PRH
    Hydroxyapatite has been widely used for a variety of bone filling and augmentation applications. But the poorly resolved X-ray image of certain hydroxyapatite (HA) based implants such as porous blocks and self setting HA cements is a radiological problem to surgeons for monitoring of the implant and early diagnosis complications. In the present work the practical difficulty related to the reduced X-ray opacity was overcome by exploiting the contrast enhancement property of iron oxide nano particles. Sintered nano iron oxide-HA composite ceramics were prepared from powders produced through a co-precipitation route. The phase purity and bioactivity of the composites were analyzed as a function of percentage iron oxide in the composite. The X-ray attenuation of dense and porous composites was compared with pure HA using a C-arm X-ray imaging system and micro computed tomography. In all the prepared composites, HA retains its phase identity and high X-ray opacity as obtained for a composition containing 40 wt% iron oxide. The increased cell viability and cell adhesion nature depicted by the prepared composite offers considerable interest for the material in bone tissue engineering applications.