Study of the Bioactive Behavior of Hydroxyapatite/SiO2?CaO?MgO Glass-Ceramics Synthesized by Transferred Arc Plasma (TAP)

Abstract

The Transferred Arc Plasma (TAP) melting method is a single step process which is reported to produce highly bioactive glass ceramics. Thus, the aim of the present work was the investigation of the bioactivity and evaluation of the developed apatite layer thickness of the hydroxyapatite/SiO2-CaO-MgO systems under various compositions. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy with associated Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy analysis (SEM-EDS) and X-ray Diffractometry (XRD) were used to characterize all specimens' surfaces before and after their immersion in c-SBF solution. It was concluded that the synthesized HA/glass-ceramic systems formed a well structured apatite layer even after the first 6 days of their immersion whilst pure glass pellets indicated a much slower apatite layer formation. SEM images and online cross sectional EDS analysis of the composite pellets after 18 days in c-SBF proved the development of an apatite layer 5-6 μm thick.