The designing of properties of hydroxyapatite/poly-l-lactide composite biomaterials by hot pressing

Effects of the hot pressing parameters on the designing of structures and p roperties of hydroxyapatite/poly-L-lactide biocomposite blocks have been st udied. Interdependences of temperature, pressure and time of hot pressing a nd the density, compressive strength, elasticity modulus, and fracture type of biocomposite blocks were defined. The microstructures of the fracture s urfaces were observed by scanning electron microscopy, while the compositio ns of the constituent phases after hot pressing were determined qualitative ly by FT-infrared spectroscopy. A wide spectrum of block properties such as relative density of 86.2-99.6 %, compressive strength of 38-139 MPa and el asticity modulus of 2-10 GPa was obtained by varying the hot pressing param eters.