The return of ceramic implants: Rose stem inspired dual layered modification of ceramic scaffolds with improved mechanical and anti-infective properties

Nowadays, traditional ceramics for bone implants have considerably replaced by metal based biomedical materials, attributing to the friability of ceramics. However, ceramic implants possess excellent biocompatibility and longtime abrasion resistance. They should be more desirable for long-term uses of implants in case their fragility had been overcome. In the present work, inspired from natural rose, a dual-layer-modified ceramic scaffold was constructed by coating a superplastic layer of isocyanate (ISO) resin and a nano Zinc Oxide (nano-ZnO) layer on the ceramic scaffold. The ISO resin modification layer with 1 mm thickness, improved the mechanical properties of ceramic implants 2-3 times, and protect the ceramic implants from broken even drop from 1 m high. Moreover, such dual layered modification exhibited broad spectrum antibacterial behavior. In vivo biocompatible studies demonstrated that there was no obvious noticeable tissue damage in all major organs of mice after the implant surgeries.