High-Strength Composites Based on 3D Printed Porous Scaffolds Infused with a Bioresorbable Mineral-Organic Bone Adhesive

Bioresorbable bone adhesives are attractive materials for applications where bone repair, regeneration, or reconstruction is involved. They can potentially augment or replace metal fixation while allowing to avoid follow-up procedures upon bone healing. Combining such bone adhesives with other clinically relevant materials could significantly improve the mechanical and biological properties of the resulting composite due to the strong adhesive interactions between the adhesive and the material. Herein, an efficient strategy is presented to create biomedically relevant biphasic scaffolds through filling 3D printed gyroid polymer or metal structures with a bioresorbable mineral-organic bone adhesive. Due to the high interfacial adhesion of the bone adhesive and both polymers and metals, the biphasic scaffolds are efficiently stabilized by the bone adhesive, leading to a significant increase in the compressive strength and modulus. The 3D printed composite scaffolds infused with the bone adhesive possess improved mechanical properties and bioactivity while providing adhesion to bone facilitated by the bone adhesive regions and could potentially considerably improve clinical outcomes in orthopedic applications.