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Wear Resistance, Cytotoxicity and Antibacterial Properties of Polyetheretherketone Composite Modified by Carbon Fiber and Black Phosphorus

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Abstract

High wear resistance, low cytotoxicity and excellent antibacterial properties are the basis for osseointegration of implant materials. Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has been considered as a potential implant material due to its excellent biocompatibility, natural radiolucency and mechanical properties. In this work, to improve the wear resistance, cytotoxicity and antibacterial properties of PEEK, carbon fiber (CFR) and Black Phosphorus (BP) were used to synergistically modify PEEK by two methods, deposition of BP coating on CFR-PEEK and BP/CFR-PEEK coating on Ti6Al4V (TC4) through electrostatic spraying. After CFR and BP synergistically modified PEEK, the friction coefficient of BP coating on CFR-PEEK and BP/CFR-PEEK coating were 0.14 ± 0.01 and 0.09 ± 0.02, respectively. The wear volume of BP coating on CFR-PEEK (30.54 ± 1.32) was higher than that of BP/CFR-PEEK coating (9.46 ± 1.32), which indicated that BP/CFR-PEEK coating showed high wear resistance. The difference in wear resistance may be caused by the fact that BP was not easily oxidized in BP/CFR-PEEK coating. In addition, BP coating on CFR-PEEK and BP/CFR-PEEK coating showed no obvious cytotoxicity to L929 cell and presented excellent antibacterial efficiency (up to 94.5% ± 2.8% and 96.0% ± 3.8%, respectively) against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). It was concluded that BP/CFR-PEEK coating exhibited high wear resistance, low cytotoxicity and excellent antibacterial properties against S. aureus, which might provide a foundation for osseointegration of implants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Wenbin Cao from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, and also Dr. Ying Li from First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University for the help in sample preparation and antimicrobial testing in this study.

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  1. School of Material Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Jingdan Li, Qian Liang, Wen Qin & Jing Ma

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Li, J., Liang, Q., Qin, W. et al. Wear Resistance, Cytotoxicity and Antibacterial Properties of Polyetheretherketone Composite Modified by Carbon Fiber and Black Phosphorus. J Bionic Eng 19, 155–166 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-021-00121-9

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