Interactions of ferrimagnetic glass/glass-ceramics with bovine serum albumin

Glasses/glass-ceramics with nominal composition 34 SiO₂-(45 − x)CaO-16P₂O₅-4.5MgO-0.5CaF₂ − xFe₂O₃ (where x = 10, 15, 20 wt%) have been prepared by melt quenching technique. These are characterized for structural and micro structural properties by using XRD and Raman spectroscopy. Interaction of glass-ceramics samples with bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been studied using SEM and TOF-SIMS. The formation of magnetite, apatite and wollastonite phases are observed. Typical sizes of crystallites as seen from SEM measurement are 30-50 nm. The progressive addition of iron oxide to glass leads to increase in number of non-bridging oxygen, which in turn affects the response of glass-ceramics when immersed in BSA. The samples with 15 and 20 wt% Fe₂O₃ have shown nearly full surface coverage with BSA, while the sample with 10 wt% Fe₂O₃ shows poor adhesion.