Effect of cordierite addition into bioactive glass on mechanical and bioactivity properties

Bioactive glass (BG) is a bioceramic materials widely used as bone regenaration. However, BG has low mechanical strength to use at load bearing part. In this study, cordierite was added into BG to form BG-cordierite composite. The objective of this study is to study the effect cordierite addition into BG on mechanical and bioactivity properties. BG and cordierite were synthesized through melt-quench method. BG and cordierite powders obtained were mixed together with different amounts (10 – 30 wt.%) of cordierite. The mixtures were pressed to form pellets. Then, the mechanical and bioactivity properties of the pellets were tested. The BG-cord composites were soaked in Hank’s Balance Salt Solution (HBSS) for 7 days to test the bioactivity. The Vickers hardness was used to test the physical properties. The morphology of BG-cord composite was analysed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to analyse the phases present. The results show that BG-cord has shown good bioactivity but the its hardness is lower than the pure BG.