Which characteristic of ceramics limits their use in biomaterials?

Prepare for the Arizona State University BME100 Biomedical Engineering Midterm Exam. Enhance your skills with quizzes, flashcards, and detailed explanations. Ace your exam!

The limitation of ceramics as biomaterials is primarily related to their low tensile strength. Tensile strength refers to the ability of a material to withstand tension without breaking. Ceramics are generally very strong under compression but can be quite brittle when subjected to tensile forces. This brittleness means that they are more likely to fracture under stress in a biological environment, where dynamic forces such as the movement or loading of bones and implants can occur.

In biomedical applications, particularly in load-bearing situations like bone replacements or dental implants, a material must not only be strong and durable but also able to absorb and react to the mechanical forces without failing. The low tensile strength of ceramics poses a significant challenge in these applications, limiting their effectiveness and reliability as biomaterials.

While high density, biodegradability, and corrosion resistance are relevant properties, they do not directly limit the suitability of ceramics in the same critical way as tensile strength does. High density may make ceramics suitable for certain applications, biodegradability is not typically a primary characteristic for many long-term implants, and corrosion resistance is generally one of the strong points of ceramics rather than a limiting factor.

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