Mechanical properties of self-setting composites: influence of the carboxymethylcellulose content and hydration state

The impact of the carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) content on the mechanical properties of calcium phosphate–calcium carbonate–CMC composite cements for bone substitution was investigated. The relevance of the compressive test conditions (wet or dried composite cements) is discussed and models are proposed to better understand the mechanisms involved in the mechanical properties of the composite materials. Based on a modellisation using the Voigt model for dried composite cements, we show that a minimum of CMC content of around 10–20 % is needed to enhance the mechanical properties of the dried composite materials (up to 86 MPa for the composite including 50 wt% CMC) through the formation of a mineral–organic entangled network. The compressive strength of the wet samples is low (<3 MPa) but the gain observed in the dried composites is encouraging and might be extrapolated to wet conditions if we were to use a less hydrophilic polysaccharide.