Incorporation of gallium into bioactive glasses: new structure/function relations uncovered by solid state NMR techniques

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy offers an element-selective, inherently quantitative and experimentally very flexible approach for the structural elucidation of bioactive glassy and glass-ceramic materials. Multinuclear NMR can give clear-cut and quantitative answers about the extent of network polymerization, the spatial distribution of the network former and network modifier species, and the structural roles of further elements introduced into these networks. These results facilitate our understanding of the influence of bioglass compositions upon the dissolution kinetics and bioactivities of these glasses. A particular mission of this project is to relate the dissolution rates of the glasses with new structural insights from NMR, with regard to both (1) the effect of gallium on the network structure of the glass, and (2) the local environment of the gallium species. To this end, bioactive silicate and phosphate glasses and glass ceramics will be prepared by melt-cooling and sol-gel techniques and comprehensively characterized by standard and advanced multinuclear solid-state NMR techniques.(AU)