Optimizing the Processing of Porous Melt-Derived Bioactive Glass Scaffolds

We were able to produce the first ever meltderived bioactive glass scaffold that met the requirement of an ideal bone scaffold by using the gel-cast foaming process and a new glass composition. However, initially a small fraction of sodium potassium sulfate crystals formed during processing. The purpose of this work was to study and prohibit the growth of those crystals, which was the result of the reaction between water, the glass and the initiator during the gel-casting foaming process of the scaffold. The degree of crystallinity was reduced by increasing the drying temperature and decreasing the initiator volume used.