Preparation of Porous Glass Scaffolds by Salt Sintering Technique

This paper reports a preliminary study on the development and characterization of a porous calcium phosphate glass-ceramic for tissue engineering application. To obtain porous glass scaffolds, a mixture of 3CaO.P2O5-SiO2-MgO glass (grain size below 20 mu m) and NaCl with 200-300 mu m of particle size was taken in the volume proportion 1:1. The mixture was shaped into cylindrical samples (10 mm diameter x 10 mm thick) by using unidirectional pressing. The sintering thermal cycle was selected by means of thermal analyses (DTA/TG and dilatometry) in order to attain a high enough Cohesion among the glass particles. After thermal consolidation, the salt was dissolved in water, resulting in highly porous materials. The effect of the sintering thermal cycle on the structure and microstructure characteristics of the scaffolds was investigated in this paper.