Sol-Gel-derived mesoporous calcium aluminum phosphate bioactive glasses with high surface area

Abstract

High surface area mesoporous bioactive glasses (MBGs) with composition CaO-Al2O3-P2O5 were fabricated using a simple aqueous Sol-Gel method without any template. Structural characterization of the phosphate-based MBGs was performed by BET, DTA, XRD and FTIR, and MBGs' in vitro bioactivity was evaluated by soaking them in simulate body fluid for up to 15 d at 36.5℃. The highest specific surface area is found to be 461.1 m2/g for the MBG with 5mol% CaO, and it decreased with increasing CaO content. And the glass structure for all the samples was confirmed by XRD and FTIR. However, the MBG with 20mol% CaO exhibits the best in vitro bioactivity using simulated body fluid among all samples. The unique combination of a higher specific surface area and relatively high CaO content enables mesoporous calcium aluminum phosphate bioactive glasses to be promising candidates for biomedical applications.