Fabrication, Characterization and Osteoblast Response of Cobalt-Based Alloy/Nano Bioactive Glass Composites

In this work, cobalt-based alloy/ nano bioactive glass (nbg) composites with 10, 15 and 20 wt% nbg were prepared and their bioactivity after immersion in simulated body fluid (sbf) for 1 to 4 weeks was studied. the scanning electron microscopy images of two- step sintered composites revealed a relatively dense microstructure the density of which decreased with the increase in the nbg amount. microstructural analysis as well as energy dispersive x-ray analysis (edx) revealed that after 1 week of immersion in sbf, a small amount of calcium phosphate phases precipitates on the surface of the composite samples. after 2 weeks of immersion, a considerable amount of cauliflower-like shaped precipitations was observed on the surface of composites. the observed peaks in the fourier transform infrared (ftir) spectroscopy of the composite samples in sbf immersed for 4 weeks were assigned to hydroxyapatite. therefore, a hydroxyapatite layer has been possibly formed on the surface of the composite samples during immersion in sbf. cell culture results indicate that unlike the co-based alloy, the co-based/nbg composites are bioactive and bone cells could be vivid and grow on their surfaces, promising their possibility for implant applications.