Spark plasma sintered Al2O3–YSZ–TiO2 composites: Processing, characterization and in vivo evaluation

• Al2O3 based composites were prepared by SPS technique.
• TiO2 is an effective additive for Al2O3–YSZ composites.
• The fracture toughness of Al2O3 increased with the addition of YSZ and TiO2.
• The presence of YSZ and TiO2 favored the osseointegration process.

Al2O3 and Al2O3–YSZ composites containing 3 and 5 wt.% TiO2 were prepared by spark plasma sintering at temperatures of 1350–1400 °C for 300 s under a pressure of 40 MPa. The grain growth of alumina was suppressed by the addition of YSZ. Al2O3–YSZ composites showed higher hardness than monolithic Al2O3. There was not a considerable difference in hardness values for Al2O3–YSZ composites containing 10 and 20 vol.% YSZ and the addition of TiO2 decreased the hardness of the composites. The fracture toughness of Al2O3 increased from 2.8 MPa·m1/2 to 4.3 MPa·m1/2 with the addition of 10 vol.% YSZ, further addition resulted in higher fracture toughness values. The fracture toughness values were increased with TiO2 addition and the highest value of fracture toughness, 5.3 MPa·m1/2, was achieved with the addition of 20 vol.% YSZ and 5 wt.% TiO2. Preliminary in vivo tests demonstrated the biocompatibility and osseointegration of the composites after 6 week post-implantation in femur of Wistar rats.