Bioactive and Biocompatible Silica/Pseudowollastonite Aerogels

Silica aerogels have attracted increasingly more attention due to their extraordinary properties and their existing and potential applications in a wide variety of technological areas. Materials that promote bone-tissue formation at their surface and bond to osseous tissues when implanted are called bioactive, such as pseudowollastonite particles. In this work, the synthesis of aerogels with pseudowollastonite particles was performed. The synthesis involved the preparation of an alcogel by a two step sol-gel route followed by ambient pressure drying. To promote a higher bioactivity the obtained aerogels were then biomimetically treated using simulated body fluids, SBF and 1.5 SBF. A high bioactivity was demonstrated by FT-IR, SEM, EDS, and XRD. The in vitro biocompatibility was assessed by testing cytotoxicity using rat osteoblasts cultures. The results obtained indicate that these materials are highly potential aerogels for bone tissue regeneration.