Preparation of macroporous sol-gel bioglass using PVA particles as pore former

Bioactive glasses are well known for their bone regeneration ability. Sol-gel bioglasses have many advantages comparing to melt derived bioglasses. 3-D scaffold prepared by sol-gel method is a promising substrate material for bone tissue engineering and large scale bone repair. But it is very difficult to produce macroporous sol-gel bioglasses with pores larger than 100 mum. In this work, a series sol-gel bioglasses with macropores larger than 100 mum are produced by adding PVA particles into the sol as pore former. The texture feature of this material is obtained by nitrogen adsorption/desorption analysis. Pore size distribution is collected by intrusion mercury porosimetry. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) was used to observe the pore structure of these samples. In these bioglasses, the diameter of the pore created by pore former vary from 100 to 300 mum. In vitro tests were used to evaluate the bioactivity of these sol-gel bioglasses. The samples prepared in this work show satisfactory handle resistance and good bioactivity.