| Abstract [eng] |
Inorganic matrix of bone is mostly composed of calcium phosphates (CPs). Therefore, in terms of bone regeneration, CPs are the most promising and widely used materials due to their chemical and structural similarities to natural bone tissue. One of the members of the CPs family is magnesium whitlockite (Mg-WH: Ca18Mg2H2(PO4)14). This material can be considered as a Mg-substituted CP, which naturally occurs in the human body. Mg-WH is known to be the second most abundant biomineral in human hard tissues, constituting around 20–35 wt.% of the total inorganic content. Mg-WH is known for its bioactivity and biocompatibility. Also, this mineral has osteogenic properties uncharacteristic of most CPs. Although CPs are highly biocompatible and have already demonstrated high efficiency, one of the directions of research aimed at achieving superior performance of CP-based materials considers partial replacement of Ca by other ions. Despite the fact that the first-row transition metal ions are of comparable size with Mg2+ ions, there are just a couple of studies on metal ion substituted materials with WH crystal structure. Compared to other CPs, WH is quite a poorly investigated material both in terms of biological performance, crystal structure, and thermal stability. The aim of this thesis was to synthesize and comprehensively characterize magnesium and transition metal WH as potential materials for bone regeneration. |
