In solution strategies for manufacturing phosphate-based glasses for biomedical applications
Add to calImperial College London, Lecture Theatre G05, Royal School of Mines
The Larry Hench Lecture - Dr Daniela Carta, University of Surrey
Biomaterials for regeneration or repair of hard and soft tissues and for targeting infectious diseases are becoming increasingly important as human life expectancy has increased dramatically in the past decades.
This talk will focus on the so called “third generation” class of biomaterials, phosphate-based glasses (PBGs). Differently from the first generation (bionert) and second generation (bioactive), phosphate-based glasses are bioresorbable, as they react and dissolve in the physiological environment and they are eventually totally replaced by regenerated hard or soft tissue. The traditional method to prepare PBGs, melt-quenching (MQ), requires melting of oxide powders at temperatures >1100 °C, followed by rapid cooling. MQ cannot be used for embedding temperature-sensitive molecules into PBGs during the synthesis or for manufacturing porous PBGs. Two alternative in-solution techniques will be discussed: sol-gel and coacervation. The sol-gel technique (SG), often proposed as a lower temperature alternative technique to MQ, requires the use of alkoxide precursors and allows manufacturing of mesoporous PBGs. The method of coacervation, a fast, room temperature, water-based technique provides an attractive alternative to both MQ and SG routes, as it is sustainable and cost efficient. Structural and morphological characterisation of a range of PBGs in the system P2O5-CaO-Na2O-MxOy prepared both via SG and coacervation will be presented (e.g. M = Cu, Sr, Ag, Ga), including PBGs fibers prepared via electrospinning.
Dr. Daniela Carta received her degree in Chemistry from University of Cagliari, Italy and her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK working on sol-gel materials for biomedical applications. She has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cagliari, Italy on sol-gel synthesis and characterisation of metals/alloys and functional oxide nanoparticles dispersed in highly porous matrices and as a Research Fellow at the NanoGroup at the Nanofabrication Centre, University of Southampton, UK, working on nanodevices for memory applications based on thin film oxides. In November 2016 she was appointed as a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021. Her current research is focussed on fabrication of phosphate-based glasses and gels for tissue engineering using in-solution techniques (coacervation and sol-gel) for bone regeneration and wound healing. Dr Carta has received funds from EPSRC, UKRI, MRC, Royal Society and Royal Society of Chemistry, BioMin Technologies Ltd that produce fluorine containing bioactive glass toothpastes.
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