Bioactivity of Fe2O3-CaO-SiO2 glass ceramics modified through the addition of P2O5 and TiO2

The bioactivity of ferromagnetic glass ceramics is one key factor affecting the success of hyperthermia treatments. In order to investigate the effect of the addition of a nucleating agent on the bioactivity of the resulting glass ceramics, two different nucleating agents were used for the fabrication of Fe2O3-CaO-SiO2 glass ceramics, and their short-term and long-term effects on the cytotoxicity of human fetal normal colonic mucosa cells were evaluated. The results show that P2O5 promotes the formation of an apatite-like phase on the surface of Fe2O3-CaO-SiO2 glass ceramics immersed in simulated body fluid. While TiO2 had some adverse effect on the cell viability, P2O5 had little effect on the cell viability over a certain concentration range. In this paper, the prepared Fe2O3-CaO-SiO2 glass ceramics with P2O5 added as nucleating agent are demonstrated to exhibit a good bioactivity and low cytotoxicity, which suggests good application prospects in the field of hyperthermia.