Pragya Shrivastava, S.Vijayalakshmi, Sridhar Dalai1, Pratibha Sharma
Bioactive ceramics are emerging as an important bio-material that finds application in the biomedical field for, filling bone defects, dental applications, drug delivery etc.Among the bio-ceramics, nanobioactive Glass (NBG) is known to be a precursor for tissue engineering.In this paper we focus on the preparation of NBG and NBG-polymer composites, their characterization and in vitro bio-activity studies.Sol-gel method was used to prepare the NBG and the composites of NBG with Poly (ethylene glycol)-block-poly (propylene glycol)-block-poly (ethylene glycol) polymer, a tri-block polymer (TBP).No systemic toxicity has been reported for the proposed polymer. Ethanol, acetone and 1,4- dioxanewere used as solvents for makingNBG-Polymer composites.Characterization of the samples prepared was done using electron microscopy, Atomic Emission Spectroscopy, Infrared Spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction.The particle size of the NBG, as seen from the FE-SEM was in the range 50 - 200 nm. The chemical composition was determined using ICP-AES after dissolving the NBG samples in hydro fluoric acid (HF).The SiO2, CaO and P2O5 molar ratio was found to be 77:21:3.The XRD analysis of the NBG samples confirmed its amorphous nature.The bio-activity of the NBG samples as well as the polymer composites were tested by soaking the samples in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF) for different intervals of time from 1 – 3 weeks. Hydroxyapatite layer formation was initiated in all the samples within 2 -3 days.The bioactivity and bioresorbability properties of the NBG and NBG-Polymer composites make them suitable for applications on bone tissue engineering.