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.