Core/clad phosphate glass fibres containing iron and/or titanium

• Main Authors: Ahmed, Ifty, Shaharuddin, Sharifah Imihezri, Sharmin, N., Furniss, D., Rudd, C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter Open 2015
• Subjects: TA164 Bioengineering; TP785 Clay industries. Ceramics. Glass. Cement industries
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/48457/1/Core_Clad_Phosphate_Glass_Fibres_Containing_Iron_Titanium.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/48457/; http://www.degruyter.com/
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

Phosphate glasses are novel amorphous biomaterials due to their fully resorbable characteristics, with controllable degradation profiles. In this study, phosphate glasses containing titanium and/or iron were identified to exhibit sufficiently matched thermal properties (glass transition temperature, thermal expansion coefficient and viscosity) which enabled successful co-extrusion of glass billets to form a core/clad preform. The cladding composition for the core/clad preforms were also reversed. Fe clad and Ti clad fibres were successfully drawn with an average diameter of between 30~50 µm. The average cladding annular thickness was estimated to be less than 2 µm. Annealed core/clad fibres were degraded in PBS for a period of 27 days. The strength of the Fe clad fibres appeared to increase from 303 ± 73 MPa to 386 ± 45 MPa after nearly 2 weeks in the dissolution medium (phosphate buffered solution) before decreasing by day 27. The strength of the Ti clad fibres revealed an increase from 236 ± 53 MPa to 295 ± 61 MPa when compared at week 3. The tensile modulus measured for both core/clad fibres ranged between 51 GPa to 60 GPa. During the dissolution study, Fe clad fibres showed a peeling mechanism compared to the Ti clad fibres.