Optimization of Silver-containing Bioglass Nanoparticles Envisaging Biomedical Applications

Bioglass nanoparticles (BGs) are of outmost importance in the biomedical field, because their unique characteristics,
namely osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity, and also in certain conditions, angiogenic and bactericidal
properties. In this work, novel bioglass nanoparticles containing silver (AgBGs) were synthesized by a
sol-gel method, adopting different thermal treatments to obtain new nanoparticles with bioactive and antibacterial
features. This is the first systematic study of the effect of the thermal treatment on the properties of
AgBGs. The effect of the studied thermal treatments on the properties of synthesized nanoparticles was analyzed
by several characterization techniques: FT-IR, XRD, S-TEM, SEM-EDS and Zeta potential. FT-IR allowed the
identification of the characteristic peaks of the nanoparticles and XRD revealed the presence of the characteristic
peaks of an apatite-like phase. By S-TEM analysis it was found that the produced nanoparticles are dense and
have a diameter<200 nm. The SEM micrographs showed their surface morphology and Zeta potential measurements
were performed to study their suspension stability. Additionally, in vitro bioactivity tests confirmed
their bioactive potential and the microbiological tests evidenced their bactericidal effect. These promising AgBGs
could be incorporated either in 2D or 3D structures for several biomedical applications, namely in the orthopedic
and dental fields.