Publications by authors named "Sae-Mi Kim"

Poly(L-lactic) acid (PLLA) is among the most promising polymers for bone fixation, repair, and tissue engineering due to its biodegradability and relatively good mechanical strength. Despite these beneficial characteristics, its poor bioactivity often requires incorporation of bioactive ceramic materials. A bioresorbable composite made of PLLA and hydroxyapatite (HA) may improve biocompatibility but typically causes deterioration in mechanical properties, and bioactive coatings inevitably carry a risk of coating delamination.

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TiO nanotubes (TNT) have a highly ordered open structure that promotes the diffusion of dioxygen and substrates onto active sites and exhibit high durability against deactivation during the photocatalytic air purification. Herein, we synthesized {001} facet-exposed TiO nanotubes (001-TNT) using a new and simple method that can be easily scaled up, and tested them for the photocatalytic removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in both a laboratory reactor and a commercial air cleaner. While the surface of TNT is mainly composed of {101} facet anatase, 001-TNT's outer surface was preferentially aligned with {001} facet anatase.

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Magnesium (Mg) has the advantage of being resorbed in vivo, but its resorption rate is difficult to control. With uncontrolled resorption, Magnesium as a bone fixation material has minimal clinical value. During resorption not only is the strength rapidly weakened, but rapid formation of metabolite also occurs.

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The utility of a novel ceramic/polymer-composite coating with a micro-textured microstructure that would significantly enhance the functions of biodegradable Mg implants is demonstrated here. To accomplish this, bioactive hydroxyapatite (HA) micro-dots can be created by immersing a Mg implant with a micro-patterned photoresist surface in an aqueous solution containing calcium and phosphate ions. The HA micro-dots can then be surrounded by a flexible poly(l-lactic)-acid (PLLA) polymer using spin coating to form a HA/PLLA micro-textured coating layer.

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Titanium (Ti) screw has excellent mechanical property, and osseointegration capacity. However, they require surgery for removal. In contrast, polymer screws are resorbable, but they have poor mechanical properties.

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Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys have gained considerable attention as a promising biomaterial for bioresorbable orthopedic implants, but the corrosion behavior of Mg-based implants is still the major issue for clinical use. In order to improve the corrosion stability and implant-tissue interfaces of these implants, methods for coating Mg have been actively investigated. In this study, poly(ether imide) (PEI)-silica hybrid material was coated on Mg, for the tunable degradation and enhanced biological behavior.

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The introduction of a protective coating layer to highly corrosive magnesium (Mg) has been proposed as one of the common approaches for improved corrosion resistance of Mg-based implants as load-bearing biomedical applications. However, only few studies have focused on the mechanical stability of the coated Mg under practical conditions where significant deformation of the load-bearing implants is induced during the surgical operation or under physiological environments. Therefore, in this study, we developed a dual coating system composed of an interlayer hydroxyapatite (HA) and a top layer poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) to improve the coating stability under deformation of Mg alloy (WE43) substrate.

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Magnesium and its alloys are candidate materials for biodegradable implants; however, excessively rapid corrosion behavior restricts their practical uses in biological systems. For such applications, surface modification is essential, and the use of anticorrosion coatings is considered as a promising avenue. In this study, we coated Mg with hydroxyapatite (HA) in an aqueous solution containing calcium and phosphate sources to improve its in vitro and in vivo biocorrosion resistance, biocompatibility and bone response.

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Hydroxyapatite was deposited on pure magnesium (Mg) with a flexible poly(ε-caprolactone) interlayer to reduce the corrosion rate of Mg and enhance coating flexibility. The poly(ε-caprolactone) interlayer was uniformly coated on Mg by a spraying method, followed by hydroxyapatite deposition on the poly(ε-caprolactone) using an aerosol deposition method. In scanning electron microscopy observations, inorganic/organic composite-like structure was observed between the hydroxyapatite and poly(ε-caprolactone) layers, resulting from the collisions of hydroxyapatite particles into the poly(ε-caprolactone) matrix at the initial stage of the aerosol deposition.

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