Control of Ag nanoparticle distribution influencing bioactive and antibacterial properties of Ag-doped mesoporous bioactive glass particles prepared by spray pyrolysis

Mesoporous bioactive glasses (MBGs) have become important bone implant materials because of their high specific surface area resulting in high bioactivity. Doping MBGs with Ag removes one of the remaining challenges to their applications, namely their lack of intrinsic antibacterial properties. In present work we demonstrate that Ag-doped MBGs can be prepared in one-step spray pyrolysis (SP) process. The SP preparation method offers the advantages of short processing times and continuous production over the sol-gel method previously used to prepare MBGs. Using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and selected area electron diffraction we demonstrate that the synthesized MBG particles have amorphous structure with nanocrystalline Ag inclusions. The scanning transmission electron microscopy-X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry of cross-sectional samples shows that the distribution of the Ag dopant nanoparticles within MBGs can be controlled by using the appropriate formulation of the precursors. The distribution of the Ag dopant nanoparticles within the MBG particles was found to affect their surface areas, bioactivities and antibacterial properties. Based on the observations, we propose a mechanism describing MBG particle formation and controlling dopant distribution. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 103B: 899-907, 2015.