Dual reinforcement of PEKK composites with hydroxyapatite and silicon nitride nanowires for enhanced mechanical, tribological, antibacterial, and osteogenic performance
Yuewen Xue, Lina Sun, Qinghua Tan, Tongtong Cui, Wanzhu Hao, Xia Luo, Ningyi Xian, Xijing He, Leilei Zhang, Ting Zhang · 2026
Read Dual reinforcement of PEKK composites with hydroxyapatite and silicon nitride nanowires for enhanced mechanical, tribological, antibacterial, and osteogenic performance by Yuewen Xue, Lina Sun, Qinghua Tan, Tongtong Cui, Wanzhu Hao, Xia Luo, Ningyi Xian, Xijing He, Leilei Zhang, Ting Zhang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13560440.txt.
Description
Yuewen Xue and colleagues reinforce a bone-like polymer, PEKK, with two additives at once to make it fit for load-bearing orthopedic implants. Their 2026 materials study blends hydroxyapatite particles, a mineral resembling bone, with silicon nitride nanowires into the polymer. Plain PEKK is gentle on imaging and matches bone stiffness, but its surface is biologically inert and its bonding weak.
The dual composite transformed the strength figures, roughly quintupling tensile strength from the pure polymer's values in the reported measurements. Friction and wear fell under both dry sliding and serum lubrication. The material killed meaningful shares of two bacterial species and halved staph biofilm growth compared with plain polymer. Cell assays showed better bone-forming cell growth and differentiation, and implanted samples grew more surrounding bone in animals. The authors propose dual reinforcement as a practical upgrade path for this implant family.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yuewen Xue, Lina Sun, Qinghua Tan, Tongtong Cui, Wanzhu Hao, Xia Luo, Ningyi Xian, Xijing He, Leilei Zhang, Ting Zhang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 71611 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |