A hybrid approach for in-situ synthesis of bioceramic nanocomposites to adjust the physicochemical and biological characteristics

In this article, a hybrid method comprising a sol–gel process and mechanical activation (MA) for the synthesis of bioceramic-based nanocomposites is proposed. The method was used to synthesize model akermanite (AKM)–monticellite (MNT) nanocomposites with high purity. The STA and XRD results confirm the successful formation of AKM–MNT bio-nanocomposite at a very low calcination temperature. Moreover, the STA results illustrate that the calcination initiation temperature of the synthesized nanoceramics decreased from 830 to 700 °C owing to MA, and the weight fraction of MNT increased with increasing MA duration. The crystallite sizes of AKM and MNT increased to values below 60 and 50 nm with increasing calcination temperature, respectively. Although the lattice constants of the produced AKM and MNT decreased with increasing MA duration, the values were very close to those of the reference codes. Furthermore, the samples were investigated with FESEM and TEM; according to the results, the longer MA process resulted in samples with finer particles. The biocompatibility of the synthesized nanocomposites was corroborated with an MTT assay; the nanocomposite extract with different dilution ratios had a crucial effect on the proliferation rate of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Overall, the results show that the proposed hybrid method is suitable for the synthesis and fabrication of nanocomposites.