(3bp) Bio-Inspired, Self-Healing Organic-Inorganic Hybrids for Bone Tissue Engineering
AIChE Annual Meeting
2011
2011 Annual Meeting
Education
Meet the Faculty Candidate Poster Session
Sunday, October 16, 2011 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Bio-inspired, self-healing organic-inorganic hybrids for bone tissue engineering
Jijun Huang1, Grace Lau1, Manuel Houmard1, Lihong He2, Phillip B. Messersmith2, and Antoni P. Tomsia1
1Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
2Biomedical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208
Repair and replacement of skeletal tissue by synthetic materials remains one of the great challenges in tissue engineering. Unlike nature bone and other tissue, the bone and dental implants do not have the function of self-healing. In order to achieve dramatic improvements in in vivo performance of composites for skeletal tissue repair, new ways of approaching composite design and fabrication are needed. We recently employed a biomimetic or bio-inspired approach to develop self-healing bioactive composites by combining freeze casting technology with infiltration and in situ polymerization. This new approach allows us to be able to fabricate a series of lamellar-structured biocomposites of TiO2 or ZnO with self-healing polymers based on poly(methyl methacrylate). The formed biocomposites show considerably improved compressive strength and fracture toughness in addition to their intrinsic self-healing capability. In this work, we will demonstrate our design strategy, fabrication technology, and improved mechanical properties of the biomimetic composites.