The Department of Materials Engineering at the University of Technology awarded a doctorate degree to the student, Hawra Uday Abbas, Department of Materials Engineering / University of Technology for her thesis titled

"Cold sintering of ceramic matrix composites biomaterials"

The discussion took place in the postgraduate hall located in Building B within the department on Wednesday, 6/3/2024 at nine o'clock in the morning, and the discussion committee consisted of ladies and Gentlemen

Prof. Dr. Shehab Ahmed Zidane                     Chairman

Prof. Dr. Mohsen Abbas is black                     member

Assist. Prof.  Dr. Mayada Shanan Abd            member

Assist. Prof. Dr. Iyad Kazem Hassan                member

Assist. Prof. Dr. Ahmed Hussein Ali                member

Assist. Prof. Dr. Hana Arir Smej          as a member and supervisor

Prof. Dr. Zuhair Jabbar Abdul Amir     as a member and supervisor

In addition, the thesis has scientifically evaluating by Assist prof. Israa Qahtan Sabri/University of Babylon/College of Materials Engineering, and Assist. Prof. Muzaffar Ali Muhammad/University of Technology/Department of Applied Sciences, and linguistically by Lecturer Dr. Ali Abdul Karim Mohsen/University of Technology/Department of Materials Engineering

After the examination committee recorded its comments on the thesis, which covered both explanation and correction, the student's defense of her thesis, and the conclusion of the discussion, the committee convened to evaluate the thesis. They decided to award the student a doctorate degree with a pass grade

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to use novel technique of very low-temperature sintering named the cold sintering process to produce highly dense of hydroxyapatite and hydroxyapatite-polyetheretherketone (HA-PEEK) nanocomposites.

Nano hydroxyapatite (17-35 nm) was prepared using two different routes: synthesis by chemical precipitation method (HA1) and natural source from boven bone (HA2).  Nano HA- PEEK composite was fabricated using two different routes: The direct mixing and dissolution methods(using toluene and tetrahydrofuran). The sintering temperature, pressure, holding time, and PEEK content were selected as the production parameters. The optimum cold sintering parameters for producing dense Nano HA and nano HA-PEEK composite samples was determined via using the Taguchi method.

It can be concluded that cold sintering is a good process for densifying ceramics and composite with little energy consumption. All samples exhibit excellent hydrophilicity. Furthermore, the HA-PEEK composite exhibited good pre-osteoblast cell (MC3T3-E1) adhesion, spreading, and proliferation. Histological study indicate a new bone formation with osteocyte cells around all implants after 6 weeks of implantation.