Self-Healing Composites via Novel Biomolecular Design and Processing

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application addresses broad Challenge Area (13) Smart Biomaterials - Theranostics and specific Challenge Topic, 13-DE-101* Novel Self-Healing Smart Dental and Bio-Restorative Materials. Effective repair and replacement of skeletal tissue by synthetic materials remains one of the great challenges in healthcare today. Although metallic orthopedic and dental implants enjoy widespread use and success in modern orthopedic and dental clinical practice, they remain poor substitutes for the tissues they are intended to replace. Natural mineralized tissues of the teeth and bones are composites of inorganic and organic phases, having evolved over many millions of years to be lightweight, strong, damage tolerant, and capable of self-healing. Despite significant efforts toward improving composite science and technology over the last thirty years, only marginal improvements in composite performance have been realized for in-vivo applications. Specifically, replacement of load-bearing skeletal tissues with synthetic materials capable of withstanding the harsh conditions inside the human body and extreme cyclic loading conditions for years or even decades of continuous service remains an unmet goal. Our vision is to meet this challenge by combining innovative biologically inspired polymer design and synthesis, fundamental studies of bonding at the organic-inorganic interface, and an elegant approach to composite processing. We hypothesize that our bioinspired, unified approach will lead to novel high strength composite materials with self-healing capacity. Inspired by self- healing materials found in nature, the composition of organic and inorganic phases will be designed to impart unique self-healing characteristics and will be fabricated using unique composite processing methodology to yield robust, high-strength composites. This study will lead the way toward next generation composite materials for replacement of bone and teeth. In this project we employ a biologically inspired approach to the development of composite materials with high strength and high damage tolerance as a result of self-healing properties. This study may lead to a new generation of clinical materials for replacement of bone and teeth.