In vitro assessment and surface morphology of copper-silver co-doped ordered mesoporous antifungal bioactive glasses

Abstract

Stöber process is a desirable and less time-consuming method for preparing bioactive glass (BG) as an alternative to sol-gel and melt-quenching. The process produces monodispersed BG structures with amorphous particles that can be modified with other precursors to get the desired properties. Substituting alkaline metals within BG structures provides favorable physicochemical and bioactivity properties. The current study synthesized a new glass family co-doped with silver and copper and investigated the surface morphology, textural properties, and therapeutic functions. The presence of silver and copper ions in the glass network was confirmed via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images, demonstrating nano spheroid particles with a particle size of 95 ± 15 nm. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) analysis revealed mesoporous particles with pore diameters between 3 ± 0.8 nm, closely related to their surface area. Furthermore, the acellular assay showed apatite layer formation and distinct X-ray Diffraction analysis (XRD) peaks were detected upon immersion of particles in simulated body fluid for 7 days. In addition, doping bioactive glass has demonstrated antifungal activity with Ag2O and CuO, which appears as a promising approach, indicating that incorporating silver and copper ions inhibited the growth of candida albicans, thus suggesting that this type of bioactive glass could exhibit potential applications in bone and tissue engineering, drug delivery, and antifungal as well as for bioactive coatings.