Abstract
A new type of cerium borate glass-ceramic is prepared and studied. The microstructure and crystallization behaviors of the glass samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron diffraction (ED), and 31P NMR spectroscopy. The microstructures of samples contain 2 are amorphous in nature. More addition of CeO2 transforms the glass to glass-ceramics without thermal annealing. The morphological change of the microstructure of these materials was followed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained results have revealed that the addition of more than 0.8 mol% CeO2 can promote nucleation and crystallization routes that are combined with the establishment of diverse crystalline phases. Glasses with lower contents of CeO2showed no tendency to crystallization. The crystals of CeO2 containing glasses were spheroid like morphology that was assigned to the three-dimensional fast growth of the well-formed structural species in the boro-apatite phase. In addition, the cerium free glass is characterized by particle-like morphology. Then the growth of spheroid species in three-dimension plays better compatibility and bioactivity behavior than that of the other types of morphology. This is may because the spherical shape has a higher surface area than that of the needle-like morphology. Accumulation and aggregation of small-sized spheres from cerium borate phases played the role of enhancing the hardness of the studied materials.
Highlights
Positions of indicated sharp diffraction peaks on X-ray diffraction (XRD) diffractogram shown in Figure 2 is compatible with that reported for cerium sodium borate and calcium
Results based on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and EDP, (Figure 4) agree well with that obtained from XRD
It can be concluded that the ceramics with CeO2 < 1 mol% show a common microstructure that contains nonuniform distributed species
Summary
It has been reported previously that the hydrated calcium phosphate structure known as hydroxyapatite (HA) is considered to be biocompatible with human. HA is well known to have reduced mechanical strength in comparison with natural bone This drawback is assumed to be the most serious obstacle for some specific claims, for load-bearing implants [3] [4]. For this reason, bioactive glass-ceramics are considered as alternatives to the pure HA to be used as fillers and bone graft [5]. The presence of CeO2 in the network of borate network will enhance the bioactivity of the material since CeO2 is reported to be used as a nucleating and crystallizing agent of apatite and wollastonite phases
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