Bioactive Properties of Glasses glass ceramics Synthesized from Agricultural and Food Wastes

Abstract

Agro-food wastes/ashes such as corn husks, sugarcane leaves, wheat straws, and eggshell powder are used as resource materials to prepare the glasses via the melt-quench technique. These agro-food wastes/ashes/powders contain silica, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and some other trace elements that are usually required to make bioglass/glass-ceramics. Moreover, agro-food wastes are also sustainable, and cost-effective sources to synthesize bioglasses/glass-ceramics. The effect of different agro-food waste ashes like sugarcane leaves ashes, wheat straw ashes, and eggshell powder with fixed corn husk ashes are investigated. The formed glasses/glass-ceramics are investigated for their physical, structural, thermal, and mechanical properties to check their suitability and applicability as biomaterials. Bioactive properties of the glasses/glass-ceramics are investigated in-vitro using simulated body fluid. Further, the biocompatibility of these glasses/glass-ceramics is observed on osteoblastic-like human cell lines (MG-63) using 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay to investigate their applicability. The thesis work is represented in seven chapters. Chapter 1 deals with the basics of glass/glass-ceramics, bioglasses/glass-ceramics, and their basic requirements to qualify as bioactive materials. Different testing methods used to test the bioactivity of glasses/glass-ceramics followed by the mechanism of formation of HAp layer on the glass/glass-ceramics surface after soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) are also given in this chapter. The biocompatibility testing methods are also given in brief. The 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay is a reliable method. It is directly related to the number of viable (living) cells introduced to test the biocompatibility of glass/glass-ceramics.