Sol-gel-synthesized bioglass-ceramics: physical, mechanical, and biological properties

Nowadays, bioglasses have been introduced universally. However, controlling the physical and biological properties of bioglass is complicated. Hence, tailoring their composition and heat-treatment procedures could be beneficial. In the present study, the fluorapatite-containing bioglass-ceramic powders were synthesized via a sol-gel route in two systems, 50SiO₂-39CaO-11P₂O₅ and 64SiO₂-28CaO-8P₂O₅. Furthermore, it is aimed to examine how additives affect the final microstructure by the addition of TiO₂ and ZnO to the chemical formula. Also, another effective parameter that was investigated is the heat-treatment temperature. Based on the XRD and FESEM results, the spherulitic morphology of fluorapatite-containing phases in additive-containing samples proved that the presence of TiO₂ oxide was more influential than ZnO oxide in controlling the crystallization and growth of the desired phases. FTIR results confirmed that increasing the heat-treatment temperature from 700 ℃ to 1100 ℃ caused more intense Si-O and P-O functional groups. There was also no cytotoxicity effect in all samples based on the MTT assay results. Based on the mechanical investigation, the presence of ZnO oxide increased the flexural strength of sintered samples up to 60 MPa.