ABSTRACT CONCLUSIONS PROCESSING BIBLIOGRAPHY Processability of novel resorbable and biocompatible PLLA/Mg composites S.C. Cifuentes a,b, F.A. López a, R. Benavente b, J. L. González-Carrasco a,c a. National Center for Metallurgical Research (CENIM-CSIC), Madrid, Spain b. Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC) Madrid, Spain c. Biomedical Research Networking center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Spain Special thanks to: Project MAT C05-01, Spanish National Research Council - CSIC and European Social Fund (Fondo Social Europeo) for JAE-I3P Grant. CIBER-BBN is supported by the Ministerio de Salud Carlos III 0.2 %Mg 0.5 %Mg 1 %Mg Compounding by Extrusion PLLA Mg + RESULTS 1 mm 1 m 1 mm The development of PLLA/Mg composites responds to the need of overcoming the lack of bioactivity and low mechanical properties of current bioresorbable biomaterials for medical applications. Their manufacturing will likely require a high temperature step to mould the material by using a compression, extrusion or injection process. Given that previous works have established that metal hydroxides/oxides reduce the thermal stability of PLLA, in order to move forward the PLLA/Mg composite processing and design, the study of the effects of pure Mg particles on PLLA thermal stability and melting behaviour, as well as its effect on the mechanical properties becomes an ineludible goal. Materials: A poly-L-lactic acid matrix is reinforced with Mg particles of 50 um. The PLLAXMg composites are compounded by extrusion and moulded by compression. Characterization: The effect on the melting behaviour and thermal stability of Mg on PLLA is studied by DSC and TGA, respectively. The mechanical studies are performed under compression tests on an universal machine. PLDA PLDA02Mg PLDA1Mg [1] S. C Cifuentes, E. Frutos, J.L. González Carrasco, M. Muñoz, M. Multigner, J. Chao, R. Benavente, M. Lieblich. Materials Letters 74, (2012) Compression Moulding T melt=190ºC P= bar PLLA Granules + Mg powder Screw Die Extruded solid  mm h= 2 mm Fig. 3. Isothermal thermogravimetric curves Fig. 1. DSC diagrams Fig. 2. Thermogravimetric curves Fig. 4. Thermal degradation rate Mg has a mild effect on the cold crystallization and melting temperatures. They are shifted towards lower values as Mg content increases. A content of 7% of Mg has a more evident effect on the melting peak, where the material starts to melt near 150ºC. Fig. 5 shows the effect of Mg on the mechanical properties under compression. There are the reinforcement effect as well as the thermal degradation effect. Mg improves the mechanical properties of the composite when the reinforcement effect is greater than the thermal degradation effect, this occurs until 5% of Mg content. When the material has a 7% of Mg the mechanical properties drop dramatically due to the higger effect of thermal degradation Mg does not compromise the processability of the material when proper parameters for reinforcement are selected. There is a specific volume fraction of Mg where the highest mechanical properties are achieved. PLLA/Mg composites with improved mechanical properties can be manufactured by plastic s processing technologies. Fig. 2 shows that Mg accelerates the thermal degradation of PLLA without compromising the temperature window required for commercial processing (extrusion, injection) (~ <200ºC). Figs. 3 and 4 make more evident the effect of Mg on the thermal degradation of PLLA as, in isothermic conditions, PLLA thermal degradation rate has an exponential growth as the Mg content increases. Thermal stabilityMelting behaviour Mechanical properties CENIM