Preparation and Characterization of Phosphate Glass Fibers and Fabrication of Poly(caprolactone) Matrix Resorbable Composites

Phosphate glass fibers (20Na(2)O-24CaO-16MgO-40P(2)O(5)) were prepared with varying pulling speeds from 50 to 2000 m/min. Fiber diameters ranging from 48 +/- 6 mu m to 12 +/- 4 mu m were obtained at pulling speeds of 50 and 2000 m/min respectively. Degradation tests of the fibers (up to 7 days) were carried out in aqueous medium at 37 degrees C and indicated that phosphate glass fibers experience a higher mass loss initially before reaching a plateau. Before composite fabrication, fibers were treated using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. Phosphate glass fiber reinforced poly(epsilon-caprolactone) matrix unidirectional composites were prepared by using both in-situ polymerization and compression molding techniques. For in-situ polymerized composites (25% fiber by volume), flexural strength (FS), flexural modulus (FM), tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM), and impact strength (IS) were found to be 105 MPa, 5.9 GPa, 88 MPa, 6.8 GPa, and 27 kJ/m(2), respectively. For compression molded composites (10% fiber by volume), FS, FM, TS, TM, and IS were found to be 55 MPa, 2.1 GPa, 46 MPa, 1.6 GPa, and 14 kJ/m(2) respectively. After 6 weeks of immersion in aqueous media (37 degrees C), the fibers inside the composite had degraded as determined by scanning electron microscope.