Development of Polymer/nanoceramic Composite Material with Potential Application in Biomedical Engineering Diego Vieira Santos 1,a ; Ana Paula Marzagão Casadei 1,b ; Pereira R. V. 1 ; Aragones A. 2 ; Salmoria G. V. 3 ; Fredel M. F. 1,c 1 CERMAT, Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis/SC, Brazil 2 Odontology Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis/SC, Brazil 3 CIMJECT, Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis/SC, Brazil a diego.vieirasantos@gmail.com, b casadeiap@hotmail.com, f mfredel@emc.ufsc.br Keywords: biomaterial, bioresorbable composite, poli(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), Hidroxyapatite (HA) Abstract:The rise of human life expectancy results in the increasing of elderly population and consequently the diseases of old age, which are mostly related with bone degenerative diseases. These problems also affect young individuals, commonly due to accidents (automobile and work). This fact has stimulated the research and development of materials that can replace or regenerate the damaged bone. From the engineering view, bone is a composite material consisting of an organic matrix (collagen), reinforced by an inorganic component (hydroxyapatite). The search for a suitable material, with properties tailored to the needs of the bone metabolism, as well as the adequate way of material processing, which ensures the maintenance or improvement of their initial properties, motivated this research. In this work was developed composite materials, based on bioresorbable polymer (PLLA) and phosphocalcic nanoceramic (HA). The composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (microstructure) and dynamical mechanical analyses (mechanical behavior). The results indicated these materials as promising for applications in the medical and dental manufacturing devices (plates and screws) by injection molding, and also for scaffolds by rapid manufacturing, in the tissue engineering area. Introduction Osseous failures frequently occur and sometimes the spontaneous regeneration does not happen. Therefore is necessary to promote the stabilization of osseous fragments in order to restore the shape and function of the damaged tissue. Frequently metallic materials are produced as orthopedic and dental devices and successfully applied in osseous reconstruct surgeries [1]. Though these materials present higher strength in relation to bone supporting most part of the applied load and, consequently, the bone is not properly stimulated. This result in bone mass loss, the stress shielding, which leads to local atrophy and osteoporosis. In order to avoid these consequences biodegradable materials have been used recently, most of them from the poli-α hydroxyesters family, as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(glycolic acid) (PGA) and their co-polymers [2]. These biopolymer´s degradation is characterized as heterogeneous, once the product are the material´s fragments with uneven size, released in irregular time intervals, which can cause an undesirable inflammatory response. With the purpose of minimizing these problems, phosphocalcic bioactive ceramic particles are incorporated to the polymeric material [3,4,5,6,7,8]. Different methods have been tested for the processin of composite materials [9,10,11.] This work studies different massic combinations between bioresorbable poly(L-lactic acid) – PLLA and hydroxyapatite ceramic in nanoscale (nHap). The nanocomposites were processed by hot extrusion and the different compositions were analyzed by their microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties. Materials Science Forum Vols. 727-728 (2012) pp 1142-1146 Online available since 2012/Aug/24 at www.scientific.net © (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.727-728.1142 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 186.222.34.35-09/12/12,22:35:56)