Comparisons between surfactant-templated mesoporous and conventional sol-gel-derived CaO-B2O3-SiO2 glasses: Compositional, textural and in vitro bioactive properties

Compositional, textural and in vitro bioactive comparisons between surfactant-templated mesoporous (MCBS) and conventional sol-gel-derived CaO-B₂O₃-SiO₂ (CBS) glasses are studied in this paper. CBS glasses are heterogeneous in composition. Due to the heterogeneity, melting boron oxide that formed during the heat treatment will fill in the pores that should have been generated by decomposition of calcium species. So, unlike other conventional sol-gel-derived bioactive glasses that have disordered and widely distributed mesopores, the CBS glasses are almost nonporous. MCBS glasses are more homogeneous in composition than CBS glasses, mainly ascribed to the effect of the surfactant. MCBS glasses of different compositions possess wormhole-like mesoporous structure and have similar pore size. In vitro bioactive tests show that wormhole-like MCBS glasses are more bioactive than CBS glasses, due to their high porosity.