Evaluation of physico‐mechanical properties and in vitro biocompatibility of compression molded HDPE based biocomposites with HA/Al2O3 ceramic fillers and titanate coupling agents

The present article demonstrates how the stiffness, hardness as well as the cellular response of bioinert high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) can be significantly improved with combined addition of both bioinert and bioactive ceramic fillers. For this purpose, different amounts of hydroxyapatite and alumina, limited to a total of 40 wt %, have been incorporated in HDPE matrix. An important step in composite fabrication was to select appropriate solvent and optimal addition of coupling agent (CA). In case of chemically coupled composites, 2% Titanium IV, 2‐propanolato, tris iso‐octadecanoato‐O was used as a CA. All the hybrid composites, except monolithic HDPE, were fabricated under optimized compression molding condition (140°C, 0.75 h, 10 MPa pressure). The compression molded composites were characterized, using X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Importantly, in vitro cell culture and cell viability study (MTT) using L929 fibroblast and SaOS2 osteoblast‐like cells confirmed good cytocompatibility properties of the developed hybrid composites.