Spark plasma sintering of sol–gel derived 45S5 bioglass®-ceramics : mechanical properties and biocompatibility evaluation

• Main Authors: Chen, Q. Z., Yu, L. G., Fang, X. Y., Xu, Jinling, Khor, Khiam Aik
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Plasma treatment
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/94161; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/8527
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This work aims to find an efficient sintering technique and optimal sintering conditions of a novel sol–gel derived Bioglass®-ceramic powder so as to achieve much improved mechanical properties compared to conventional Bioglass®. To this end, the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique was for the first time used to densify the sol–gel derived Bioglass®-ceramic powder. It was found that the sol–gel derived Bioglass®-ceramics sintered with the SPS technique at 950 °C for 15 min had a high Young's modulus value of ~ 110 GPa, which was comparable to that of compact bone and significantly higher than the maximal value achieved by the conventional heat treatment. Moreover, the Bioglass®-ceramic compacts sintered with SPS released alkaline ions slowly and as a result, these highly densified Bioglass®-ceramics exhibited better cytocompatibility at the early stage of cell culture testing, compared to the conventional Bioglass®. Hence, the SPS technique is recommended to be used in the process of sol–gel derived Bioglass®-ceramics and its tissue engineering scaffolds.