Effect of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane on the formation of 45S5 bioactive glass microspheres

Abstract

45S5 bioactive glass microspheres (BGMs) is a material that has been receiving extensive interest in biomedical application as bone tissue restoration, craniofacial surgery, dental implant coating, and drug delivery because of their advantages in pore dimension, encapsulation network, interconnectivity as well as the controllable particle size. The common method to produce BGMS is flame synthesis and sol–gel derivation where the random size or time-consuming have become the significant drawbacks of these methods. Hence in this work, a faster alternative two-step method, melt quenching followed by Pickering emulsion has been adopted. There are two manipulatable variable which is the amount of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) (3/5/7 wt%) and the stirring duration (1/2/3 h) to determine their effects on particle size of BGMs. The incorporation of APTES as surfactant is to improve the hydrophobicity of the silica particles. The emulsion system is comprised of a water–oil interface with ratio 6:4. The characterizations involved for bioactive glass (BG) and BGMs are X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Ray Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and dissolution test. The results showed that the surface modification by APTES is successful, and the BGMs specimen synthesized with 5 wt% APTES and 2 h stirring duration has the smallest particle size (232.031 µm) with almost spherical shape as well as the best dissolution properties.