Fabrication of monticellite-akermanite nanocomposite powder for tissue engineering applications

Mechanical activation (MA) is an efficient method to synthesize nano-structured materials. This is the first report of successful synthesis of monticellite-akermanite nanocomposite from talc, calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate powders. The raw materials were milled for 10 min, 2, 5, 10, and 20 h and then annealed in order to obtain monticellite-akermanite nanocomposite powder. The obtained powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicated preparation of monticellite-akermanite nanocomposite powder with crystallite sizes about 30.76 ± 0.47 nm after 20 h mechanical alloying and sintering at 1200 °C for 1 h. Absence of enstatite, a phase that causes a reduction in mechanical and bioactivity properties, is an important feature of the prepared powder. The compacted samples of fabricated nanocomposite powder, sintered at 1300 °C for 3 h, exhibit significant improvements in compressive strength (60 ± 1.8 MPa) than single phase monticellite (43 ± 1.1 MPa) and hydroxyapatite (34 ± 1.4 MPa) which make it an appropriate candidate for bone tissue engineering applications.