Acetic acid derived mesoporous bioactive glasses with an enhanced in vitro bioactivity

In this paper, a novel mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) with a nanoscale surface feature in the SiO₂-CaO-P₂O₅ system has been synthesized by means of the acetic acid-assisted sol-gel process. As a comparison, the normal sol-gel derived bioactive glass (NBG) with the same composition was also synthesized. The structure and in vitro bioactivity of as-prepared samples were characterized using various methods. The results indicated that using acetic acid as a structure-assisted agent and hydrolysis catalyst is in favor of preparing the bioactive glass with nanoscale surface morphology, larger specific surface area, relatively homogeneous sized mesopore distribution. Depending on this novel structure, MBG presented an enhanced formation of hydroxyl-carbonate apatite layer and high in vitro bioactivity.