Synthesis and thermal properties of nanoparticles of bioactive glasses containing silver

Calcium phosphate bioactive glasses (BG) and some ceramics are candidates for implantation due to their excellent bonding to bone. Silver is a bactericidal element and can be easily introduced in glasses and ceramics. In this work, nanometer-sized bioactive glass particles doped with silver were produced and characterized by Thermal Gravimetric analysis (TG), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). Water hygroscopy was reduced with increasing silver content. The increase in the amount of silver caused an increase in quartz and metallic silver crystallization while reducing the BG transformation into hydroxyapatite. It was observed the silver reduction leading to metallic silver formation for bioactive glasses containing high amount of silver.