Structural changes during sintering retardation due to surface crystallization on the bioactive glass F3.

• Grant number: 24/02121-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2024
• End date: February 14, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Edgar Dutra Zanotto
• Grantee: Carsten Blaess
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07793-6 - CEPIV - Center for Teaching, Research and Innovation in Glass, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The fluoride containing bioactive glass F3 with nominal composition 44.8 SiO2 - 2.5 P2O3 - 36.5 CaO - 6.6 Na2O - 6.6 K2O - 3.0 CaF2 mol% is a highly promising candidate as bone replacement material. However, its strong surface crystallization tendency, which retard or block viscous flow sintering, demands a thorough understanding on the crystal nucleation and growth mechanisms to prevent such limitation. To provide fundamental answers in this regard, this re-search project aims to investigate and clarify the processes of near-surface structural relaxation and compositional changes occurring during surface nucleation and crystallization on the glass F3. The structural and surface composition changes, relaxation, surface nucleation rate, crystal-lization, and possible crystal phase transformation will be analyzed by solid-state Nuclear Mag-netic Resonance (NMR), Raman, Fourier-Transformed Infrared (FTIR), x-Ray Photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopies, x-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and optical, and Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM). In combination with previous studies, the association of these methods has the potential to be the final puzzle piece to complete the fundamental understanding of the nucleation and crystallization processes in multicomponent bioactive glasses. This can become a decisive step towards the future development of a new generation of advanced bioactive glasses with a cus-tomized processing strategy and resulting properties. Furthermore, this investigation has the po-tential to extend the limits of application of NMR spectroscopy application to the field of glass and glass-ceramic materials.