Mechanical characterization of TiO₂ nanowires flexible scaffold by nano-indentation/scratch

Mechanical properties of nanowires (NWs) flexible scaffold biomaterials with open pores and channels are important factors to cell reorganize in growth for tissue regeneration engineering. However, accurate test the mechanical properties of the NWs scaffold is still a challenge because of their flexible property and porous structure. Herein, we measured the mechanical characterizes of TiO₂ nanowires (TiO₂NWs) flexible scaffold by multi-loads, multi-displacements mixed verification method in nano-indentation/scratch. The results showed that the hardness and Young's modulus of the TiO₂NWs flexible scaffold had a certain change rules with a change of the indentation load from 5 μN to 400 μN. Meanwhile, the tangential force of the TiO₂NWs flexible scaffold had significantly tensile fracture characteristic under nano-scratch. The multi-loads, multi-displacements mixed verification method by nano-indentation/scratch could be widely applied to measure the mechanical properties of all 3D NWs flexible scaffold nanostructure conveniently and accurately, which is helpful to cover the shortage of bending method for only measure the mechanical properties of 1D nanostructures.