Porous calcium phosphate ceramics prepared by coating polyurethane foams with calcium phosphate cements

Porous calcium phosphates have important biomedical applications such as bone defect fillers, tissue engineering scaffolds, and drug delivery systems. While a number of methods to produce the porous calcium phosphate ceramics have been reported, this study aimed to develop a new fabrication method. The new method involved the use of polyurethane foams to produce highly porous calcium phosphate cements (CPCs). By firing the porous CPCs at 1200 degrees Celsius, the polyurethane foams were burnt off and the CPCs prepared at room temperature were converted into sintered porous hydroxyapatite-based calcium phosphate ceramics. The sintered porous calcium phosphate ceramics could then be coated with a layer of the CPC at room temperature, resulting in high porosity, high pore interconnectivity, and controlled pores size

Coastal Reservoir Strategy and Its Applications

While the world\u27s population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold [1]. It is estimated that the world population will enlarge by another 40 to 50 % in the following fifty years. The demand for water will be increasing resulted by the population growth combined with industrialization and urbanization, which will have serious consequences on the environment. According to WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) (2012 Update), 780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people [2]. Water stress causes deterioration of fresh water resources in terms of quantity (aquifer over-exploitation, dry rivers, etc.) and quality (eutrophication, organic matter pollution, saline intrusion, etc.). In the Developing World, women and children walk miles to get water. The UN estimates that the average is 40 pounds of water carried 4 miles (18 kg-6 km). This takes hours, people can’t attend school/ work, deforms the spine and can leave women vulnerable to assault [3]. Figure 1 showed the state of water shortages based on synthetic evaluation of water management using for agriculture in 2007