文摘

Zinc is an essential trace element that stimulates bone formation but it is also known as an inhibitor of apatite crystal growth. In this work addition of ZnO to SiO2-CaO-P2O5-Na2O-CaF2 glass-ceramic system was made by conventional melt-quenching technique. DSC curves showed that the addition of ZnO moved the endothermic and exothermic peaks to lower temperatures. X-ray diffraction analysis did not reveal any additional phase caused by ZnO addition and showed the presence of wollastonite and hydroxyapatite crystalline phases only in all the glass-ceramic samples. As bio-implant apatite forming ability is an essential condition, the surface reactivity of the prepared glass-ceramic specimens was studied in vitro in Kokubo’s simulated body fluid (SBF) [1] with ion concentration nearly equal to human blood plasma for 30 days at 37 °C under static condition. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used to study the changes in element concentrations in soaking solutions and XRD, FT-IR and SEM were used to elucidate surface properties of prepared glass-ceramics, which confirmed the formation of HCAp on the surface of all glass-ceramics. It was found that the addition of ZnO had a positive effect on bioactivity of glass-ceramics and made it a potential candidate for restoration of damaged bones.