Development and characterization of PLA/TCP bioactive composites

• Grant number: 17/24052-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2018
• End date: January 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Antonio Pessan
• Grantee: Lais de Nóbile Pires
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

As the world's population life expectancy increases, there is a rise in the need of orthopedic treatment for bone repairs due to trauma. In this context, new surgical procedures have been developed as new materials for bone repairs, especially poly (lactic acid), PLA, a polyester derived of lactic acid obtained from renewable sources. PLA is a biodegradable polymer, biocompatible and for presenting good mechanical properties such as high resistance, its application has grown in the medical industry in the manufacturing of threads for intradermal suture, devices for fracture recovery, controlled drug release, guided tissue regeneration, facial and scaffolds for cell culture. Thus, the development of composites based on polymer/ bioactive ceramic fillers, such as ² -tricalcium phosphate (TCP), will be the aim of this project. In this way, it is possible to obtain biomaterials with adequate mechanical properties, which present bioactive behavior and controlled degradation (AU)