Hydrothermal synthesis of bioactive calcium silicate glass

This work presents the synthesis of bioactive glass 60SiO2-40CaO (wt.%) by the hydrothermal method without using acid catalysts in a shortened synthesis time. The precursors Si(OC2H5)4 (TEOS), Ca(NO3)2.4H2O were introduced in a hydrothermal system, and heated at 150 oC for 24 hours. The resulting gel was dried at 150 oC for 24 hours, then calcined at 800 oC for 3 hours to achieve bioactive glass. Several physical-chemical methods such as TG-DSC, XRD, SEM, and ICP-OES were used to evaluate the synthetic material. The bioactivity and biocompatibility of synthetic glass were evaluated by in vitro experiments in SBF solution and in cell culture environment. The obtained results show that the synthetic glass is an amorphous material, presenting bioactivity through the formation of a hydroxyapatite mineral layer after 10 days of soaking in SBF solution, and also showing good biocompatibility with cells L-929.