Metallic skeletons as reinforcement of new composite materials applied in orthopaedics and dentistry

Purpose: The article concerns the development of completely new groups of composite materials that can be used to produce functional replacements for damaged bones or teeth. Design/methodology/approach: A selective laser sintering was used to produce the reinforcement of those materials from titanium and its Ti6Al4V alloy in the form of skeletons with pores with adjustable geometric features. The matrix of those materials is either air or crystallised from the liquid AlSi12 or AlSi7Mg0.3 alloys condition after prior vacuum infiltration or human osteoblast cells from the hFOB 1.19 (Human ATCC - CRL - 11372) culture line. Findings: The porous material may be used for the non-biodegradable scaffold. After implantation into the body in the form of an implant-scaffold one, it allows the natural cells of the patient to grow into the pores of the implant, and it fuses with the bone or the appropriate tissue over time. The essential part of the implant-scaffold is the porous part inseparably connected with the core of solid materials. Into pores can grow living cells. Research limitations/implications: Biological-engineering composite materials in which natural cells were cultured in the pores in the laboratory next are combined as an artificial material with the natural cells of the patient in his/her body. Practical implications: The hybrid technologies of the all group of those materials were obtained and optimised. Numerous structure research was carried out using the most modern research methods of contemporary materials engineering, and mechanical tests and biological research involving the cultivation of natural cells were realised. Originality/value: The results of the research indicate the accuracy of the idea of implementing a new group of biological-engineering materials and the wide possibilities of their application in regenerative medicine.

A rhenium review – from discovery to novel applications

Purpose: The article characterises rhenium in terms of its physiochemical properties,most popular methods of manufacturing and key applications. The examples of rhenium ata nanometric scales are also presented, taking into account the latest literature reports inthis field. The objective of the article is also to present advanced nanocomposite materialsconsisting of nanostructured rhenium permanently attached to selected carbon nanomaterials- Single Walled Carbon NanoTubes (SWCNTs), Double Walled Carbon NanoTubes (DWCNTs),Multi Walled Carbon NanoTubes (MWCNTs) and Single Walled Carbon Nanohorns (SWCNHs).Design/methodology/approach: The article delineates various manufacturing methodsat a mass and nanometric scale. It also describes a custom fabrication method of carbonrheniumnanocomposites and the results of investigations performed in a transmissionelectron microscope (TEM) for nanocomposites of the following type: MWCNTs-Re,SWCNTs/DWCNTs-Re, SWCNTs-Re and SWCNHs-Re.Findings: Rhenium has been gaining growing importance in industry for years, and itsapplications are very diverse, including: heat resistant alloys, anti-corrosive alloys, rheniumand rhenium alloy coatings, elements of electrical equipment, radiotherapy, chemistry andanalytical technology and catalysis. Carbon-metallic nanocomposites are currently enjoyingstrong attention of research institutions.Research limitations/implications: The development and optimisation of fabricationprocesses of materials containing carbon nanotubes or carbon nanotubes coated with metalnanoparticles, especially rhenium, is a weighty aspect of advanced materials engineering.Practical implications: Newly created nanocomposite materials, developed as a responseto the market demand, are interesting, state-of-the-art materials dedicated to variousapplications, especially as gas or fluid sensors, and as materials possessing catalytic properties.Originality/value: The article describes nanocomposites of the following types: MWCNTs-Re, SWCNTs/DWCNTs-Re, SWCNTs-Re, SWCNHs-Re, created as a result of hightemperaturereduction of a precursor of rhenium (HReO4 or NH4ReO4) to metallic rhenium.This metal is deposited on carbon nanomaterials as nanoparticles, or inside of them asnanoparticles or nanowires whose size and dispersion are dependent upon the conditionsof a technological process.