Mechanical, degradation and drug-release behavior of nano-grained Fe-Ag composites for biomedical applications.

Abstract An original fabrication route of high-strength bulk Fe-5Ag and Fe-10Ag nanocomposites with enhanced degradation rate is reported. Near fully dense materials with fine nanostructures and uniform distribution of Ag nanoparticles were obtained employing high energy attrition milling of Fe-Ag2O powder blends followed by cold sintering – high pressure consolidation at ambient temperature that allowed the retention of the nanoscale structure. Annealing in hydrogen flow at 550 °C resulted in enhanced ductility without coarsening the nanostructure. The strength in compression of Fe5Ag and Fe10Ag nanocomposites was several-fold higher than the values reported for similar composites with mic…