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2018
Book Article
Titel
Mechanical behavior of selected ceramics
Abstract
Although ceramics are the oldest artificial man-made materials, they were taken into consideration for biomedical applications as the last of the various material groups. Except for the use of plaster of Paris for extracorporal casts and for some limited attempts to fill defects in bone, 1 which seemed not to be successful in all cases, 2 the systematic and detailed evaluation of ceramics as possible materials for artificial organs of bone and joint replacement devices did not start before the 1960s. At that time metals and plastics had been in use for several decades. There were two main reasons for disregarding ceramics as implant materials. Technical ceramics are not very pure so that a good biocompatibility was uncertain, and - more decisively - they are all restricted in their strength compared with the other materials used. However in the late 1950s, with respect to new applications, different ceramics were improved in purity and strength. Additionally new favorab le material properties of some ceramics like high wear resistance and low friction were recognized. Furthermore in the early 1960s surprising features in biological environments were discovered, from an almost complete inertness for some materials up to an active behavior which leads to bonding with the surrounding tissue or to degradation and conversion into bone.