Fabrication and Characterization of 45S5 Bioglass<sup>®</sup> Composite Scaffolds

Abstract

There are many challenges in designing and fabrication of synthetic tissue scaffold for osteochondral tissue engineering. A promising scaffolding material such as 45S5 Bioglass® has been extensively considered to construct scaffolds for this purpose. The 45S5 Bioglass® scaffold was fabricated using foam replication technique. The polyurethane foam was immersed in slurry of 45S5 Bioglass® and poly vinyl alcohol (PVA). The obtained green body was exposed for 1 hour at room temperature before oven dried at 60°C for 24 hours. The 45S5 Bioglass® composite scaffold was prepared by sintering the green body at 1050 °C for 2 hours, followed by dipping in PDLLA solution and dried at room temperature for 12 hours. Characterisations of the above scaffold were carried out using Extended Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Universal Tensile Machine (UTM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The SEM micrographs revealed the porous structure of the scaffold. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrum showed the presence of Na2Ca2Si3O9 and (Na2Ca4(PO4)2SiO4 phases in the sintered scaffold. The result showed that the 45S5® Bioglass scaffold has compressive strength of 0.40 MPa with porosity of 88%. Bioactivity assessment in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF) for 7, 14 and 28 hours gave the formation of apatite layer on the scaffold.