Towards hierarchically organized scaffolds for bone substitutes from wood structures

The development of innovative ceramic scaffolds for bone substitution with superior biomechanical features and smart anisotropic performances was performed through chemical and physical transformations of natural hierarchic structures, as trees, shrubs, palms, etc. These final structures will be highly organized from the molecular to nano, micro and macro-scales, with extremely functional architectures able to constantly adapt to ever changing mechanical and biofunctional needs. This study reports the preliminary results of the ceramisation process: starting from suitable vegetal raw materials pyrolysed to produce carbon templates characterized by complex pore structure, then infiltrated by vapour phase calcium to produce calcium carbide and finally transformed into porous ceramic of calcium carbonate by multi-step thermic and hydrothermal treatment in controlled environment.