Low-Temperature Sintering of a New Bioactive Glass Enriched with Magnesium Oxide and Strontium Oxide

Abstract

The recent research on bioactive glasses (BGs) has mainly moved on two fronts: (1) introducing ions of therapeutic interest in their composition and (2) the development of scaffolds, fibers, coatings and sintered products starting from BGs in powder form. In this case, the main obstacle to overcome is that BGs rapidly crystallize during heat treatments, thus transforming into glass-ceramics with low reactivity, slow ion release and, eventually, poor mechanical properties. Here an innovative bioactive glass (BGMS_LS), capable of responding to the main limitations of commercial BGs, is presented. The new material contains strontium and magnesium, whose therapeutic relevance is well known, and can be sintered at extraordinarily low temperatures without crystallizing, thus keeping all of its biological potential intact.