Fabrication and characterization of 45S5 bioactive glass microspheres

Abstract

Bioactive glass microspheres (BGM) has drawn many research interest in biomedical applications due to its biocompatibility and biodegradable properties. In this research work, BGM are fabricated through modified melt-quench-Pickering emulsion method. The composition of 45S5 silicate-based bioactive glass (BG) is used for the fabrication of BGM. The non-treated silica particles are too hydrophilic, which may reduce the feasibility for Pickering emulsion method. In order to obtain a stable emulsions, in this study, surface modification on the BG were done using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and oleic acid (OA) to increase the hydrophobicity of the silica particles. Pickering emulsion with volume ratio of oil to water at 6:4 was formed with dichloromethane (DCM) and treated BG powder as oil phase, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and deionized (DI) water as the aqueous phase. Characterization involved are X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), immersion in Hank's Balance Salt Solution (HBSS) and pH measurement. The results found that the BG powders show the formation of combeite phase after heat treated at 560°C and surface treatment on the BG do not affect the crystallinity of the samples. Surface modification using APTES showed better stability in emulsion and less agglomeration than the surface modification using OA.