Mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) is considered as one of the most important materials in the field of bone implants and drug carriers, owing to its superior bioactivity. In previous studies, tri-block surfactants (e.g., F127 and P123) were commonly used as pore-forming agents. However, the use of surfactants may cause serious problems such as micelle aggregation and carbon contamination and thus decrease bioactivity. Therefore, in this study, we demonstrated the synthesis of MBG using acetic acid (HAc) as a pore-forming agent to overcome the disadvantages caused by surfactants. Both untreated and HAc-treated BG powders were synthesized using spray pyrolysis and various characterizations were carried out. The results show that a mesoporous structure was successfully formed and the highest specific surface area of ~230 m²/g with improved bioactivity was reported.
Keywords: acetic acid; mesoporous bioactive glass; spray pyrolysis.