Processing and in vitro bioactivity of high-strength 45S5 glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone regeneration

In this paper, the compressive strength and in vitro bioactivity of sintered 45S5 bioactive glass scaffolds produced by powder technology and polymer foaming were investigated. The sintering temperature of scaffolds was 975 °C. The characterization of scaffolds before immersion in SBF was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and microtomography (μCT). The scaffolds were also tested for compression, and their density and porosity were measured. After immersion, the samples were observed through SEM and analyzed using EDS, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Mass variation was also estimated. The glass-ceramic scaffolds showed a 61.44±3.13% interconnected porosity and an average compressive strength of 13.78±2.43 MPa. They also showed the formation of a hydroxyapatite layer after seven days of immersion in SBF, demonstrating that partial crystallization during sintering did not suppress their bioactivity.