ON THE BIOACTIVITY OF SILICATE GLASS

In order to improve the properties of bioactive glasses, one must be able to control the bioactivity. This requires a good description of the bone bonding mechanism or, preferably, a good understanding of it. In this paper the bioactivity is approached both phenomenologically and deterministically. The phenomenological description of the property-composition relationship provides a tool for the formulation of bioactive glass compositions. The complexation of phosphate by the initially formed silica gel is proposed as the mechanism responsible for the bioactivity.