Fabrication of bioglass-cordierite scaffolds through gelcasting method
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Date
2019-07
Authors
Nurul Amirah Binti Anjalani
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Abstract
Bioactive-glass scaffolds are crucial in bone tissue engineering since they act
as temporary templates for tissue regrowth while providing structural support to the
cells. There were two types of scaffolds that were fabricated in this study; bioglass
scaffolds and bioglass-cordierite scaffolds. The aims of this project were to determine
the optimum sintering temperature to fabricate bioglass scaffold and to identify the
optimum cordierite composition to fabricate the bioglass-cordierite scaffolds. The
powder of bioglass and cordierite had been synthesised and the scaffolds were
fabricated through gelcasting method. The bioglass scaffolds were sintered at different
temperatures. The weight percentage of cordierite in solid loading of the bioglass
cordierite scaffolds were varied at 10, 20 and 30 wt.% of cordierite powder. Bioglass
scaffold sintered at 1000°C had the highest porosity which was 22.81% with
compressive strength at 0.13 MPa. For the bioglass-cordierite scaffolds, it showed that
bioglass-cordierite scaffold with 20 wt.% of cordierite (BGC 2) had the highest
porosity compared to others with 57.57% porosity. BGC 2 also had the highest
compressive strength at 0.48 MPa. The pH evolution of all scaffolds showed the
solution became more alkaline after immersed in the Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution
(HBSS) for 7 and 14 days. The X-Ray Diffraction analysis for bioglass scaffolds
showed there were crystalline phases in bioglass scaffold. FESEM with elemental
analysis and FTIR were done on the bioglass-cordierite scaffolds. The apatite layer
can be seen on the surface of all bioglass-cordierite scaffolds.