Use of laser welding for combining hyaline cartilage and subchondral bone with a nanocomposite based on bovine serum albumin and carbon nanotubes

Laser welds of hyaline cartilage and subchondral bone with the nanocomposite based on bovine serum albumin and carbon nanotubes were studied. Laser welding was carried out at the wavelength of λ = 810 nm, in the power range P = 0 ÷ 3 W and at the temperature T ∼ 70 °C using temperature feedback. Solder based on water dispersion of bovine serum albumin (25 % w/w) And chromophore indocyanine green (0.1 % w/w) was used. The tensile strength of 0.59 ± 0.29 MPa was achieved, when welding hyaline cartilage with the nanocomposite, and 0.63 ± 0.13 MPa, when welding the subchondral bone with the nanocomposite. The average pore diameter in the nanocomposite/subchondral bone welding area – 52 µm and in the nanocomposite/hyaline cartilage welding area – 42 µm were shown by computed microtomography. The hyaline cartilage/nanocomposite welds possessed the highest indicator of porosity ∼36 %. The nanocomposite/subchondral bone welds lost 1.6 % of mass, and the hyaline cartilage/nanocomposite welds 14 % as a result of being in fetal calf serum for 7 days.