Effects of Milling Media on The Fabrication of Melt-derived Bioactive Glass Powder for Biomaterial Application

The present work aims to study the effects of using different milling media on bioactive glass produced through melt-derived method for biomaterial application. The bioactive glass powder based on SiO2-CaO-Na2O-P2O5 system was fabricated using two different types of milling media which are tungsten carbide (WC) and zirconia (ZrO2) balls. However, in this work, no P2O5 was added in the new composition. XRF analysis indicated that tungsten trioxide (WO3) was observed in glass powder milled using WC balls whereas ZrO2 was observed in glass powder milled using ZrO2 balls. Amorphous structure was detected with no crystalline peak observed through XRD analysis for both glass powders. FTIR analysis confirmed the formation of silica network with the existence of functional groups Si-O-Si (bend), Si-O-Si (tetrahedral) and Si-O-Si (stretch) for both glass powders. The results revealed that there was no significant effect of milling media on amorphous silica network glass structure which shows that WC and zirconia can be used as milling media for bioactive glass fabrication without any contamination. Therefore, the fabricated BG can be tested safely for bioactivity assessment in biological fluids environment.