Preparation and Properties of Barium Titanate/Calcium Silicate Composite Bioactive Piezoelectric Ceramics

Electrical signals generated by piezoelectric materials can promote proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts, but they can't induce mineralization, while bioactive materials can induce the deposition of bone like hydroxyapatite in physiological environment, but can not generate electrical signal to promote osteogenesis. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop a composite bioactive piezoelectric material that can not only generate electrical signals, but also induce mineralization and deposition. Here, we used barium titanate as piezoelectric component and calcium silicate as bioactive component to prepare barium titanate/calcium silicate composite as bioactive/piezoelectric ceramics by solid-state sintering method. Piezoelectric properties of the ceramics were tested, and the ability of inducing mineralization was evaluated by in vitro mineralization experiment. The experimental results show that when the content of calcium silicate reaches 30%, the composite ceramics still have certain piezoelectric property (d(33) = 4 pC.N-1), and can induce the deposition of calcium phosphate in simulated body fluid. Therefore, the combination of barium titanate and calcium silicate can synchronously afford piezoelectric and biological activities, which provides a new choice for bone repair materials.