For the first time, the present work reports that spark plasma sintered HA-10Ti composite can exhibit high long crack toughness of ～4.6 MPa.m~(1/2) and large work of fracture of upto 400 J/m~2. measured using SEVNB method, which is superior to earlier developed materials (max. toughness available with the existing HA-based biomaterials ～ 3MPa.m~(1/2)). High fracture toughness is rationalized on the basis of the bridging of the crack faces by lath shaped elongated Ti particles as well as by weak crack wake debonding at HA/Ti interface. A critical analysis using classical crack bridging models reveals a close correlation between the theoretically estimated toughness enhancements with the experimentally measured toughness values. The flow cytometry results of the cultured osteoblast cells after incubating on various HA-Ti substrates importantly revealed that all the investigated HA-Ti biocomposites support increased proliferation and division of cells in a comparable manner to that on HA.
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