SiO2-CaO-P2O5 (58S) sol gel glass applied onto surgical grade stainless steel by spray technique: morphological characterization by digital image processing

SHEILA OMAR; PASTORE J.I.; A. BOUCHET; S. PELLICE; V. BALLARIN; SILVIA CERE; J. BALLARRE,

Biomedical Glasses

De Gruyter Open

Año: 2016 vol. 2 p. 10 - 18

The protection of AISI 316L stainless steel commonly used as a low-cost material forpermanent implants can be done by applying a hybrid silica based coating. Thebioactive response of the implant can only be achieved functionalizing the surface. Theaim of this work is to synthesize and characterize a sol-gel made glass with potential asbone inductive material, with and without an aging of the precursor solution. Thesystem SiO2-CaO-P2O5 (58S) were synthesized by sol-gel technique, generating an openstructure that could lead to particle dissolution and apatite deposition for biologicalpurposes. The synthesized glass is dispersed by spray onto AISI 316L protected by ahybrid silica based coating, generating deposits with different morphology. Tocharacterize the particles, image processing techniques based on MathematicalMorphology were used. Aproximately 50% of the surface was covered with particlesmade with a glass aged, and a 25% of covered area was reached with no aged one.Through this technique, it could be noticed that the no aged particles have a particle sizedistribution where many small particles are present, but their shape is almost sphericaldue to the presence of solvent and a more open glass structure in the no aged glass.