Green synthesis of nanostructured bioactive glass for dental applications

Abstract

Calcium sodium phosphosilicate (known as bioactive glass) is a biomaterial commonly used in dental care products and bone tissue engineering applications due to biocompatibility, bone-forming and dentin sensitivity reduction capability. Bioactive 45S5 glass, so-called NovaMin, comprises of 45% SiO2, 24.5% Na2O, 24.5% CaO, and 6% P2O5 (wt%). It is traditionally synthesized by wet chemical methods such as melt-quenching and sol-gel which requires high temperature heating and the use of a strong acid catalyst, which brings into the question of the possibility of introducing toxic acid residues into the final product. Therefore, there is a clear need to develop environmental-friendly bioactive glass synthesis methods or to modify existing ones in a way to uplift their environmental friendliness.