Spark plasma sintering of sol-gel derived 45S5 Bioglass®-ceramics: Mechanical properties and biocompatibility evaluation

This work aims to find an efficient sintering technique and optimal sintering conditions of a novel sol-gel derived Bioglass (R)-ceramic powder so as to achieve much improved mechanical properties compared to conventional Bioglass (R). To this end, the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique was for the first time used to densify the sol-gel derived Bioglass (R)-ceramic powder. It was found that the sol-gel derived Bioglass (R)-ceramics sintered with the SPS technique at 950 degrees C for 15 min had a high Young's modulus value of similar to 110 GPa, which was comparable to that of compact bone and significantly higher than the maximal value achieved by the conventional heat treatment. Moreover, the Bioglass (R)-ceramic compacts sintered with SPS released alkaline ions slowly and as a result, these highly densified Bioglass (R)-ceramics exhibited better cytocompatibility at the early stage of cell culture testing, compared to the conventional Bioglass (R). Hence, the SPS technique is recommended to be used in the process of sol-gel derived Bioglass (R)-ceramics and its tissue engineering scaffolds. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.