Manufacturing of silicon – Bioactive glass scaffolds by selective laser melting for bone tissue engineering

The irruption of additive manufacturing techniques opens the possibility to develop three-dimensional structures with complex geometries and high precision. In the current investigation a newly designed composite combining silicon (30, 40 and 50 wt%) with a bioactive glass and printed into scaffolds was obtained, using a direct selective laser melting (SLM) approach for the first time. Samples were computer-aided designed (CAD) to have cylindrical pores of 400 μm in diameter in order to be used as biomaterials for bone replacement. X – Ray diffraction was used to characterize the appearance of a new phase of pseudowollastonite precipitated by the partial devitrification of the glassy phase after the incidence of laser radiation. The mechanical behaviour of each composition was studied trough stress-strain curves, obtaining higher values of compressive strength as the silicon content increases. Scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy dispersive X – Ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Raman spectroscopy were used to study the bioactivity of each composite after soaking in the simulated body fluid (SBF) for 7 days, confirming this behaviour.The authors would like to acknowledge Dora Plus program no 3–14/2030/3 “Scholarship for short term visit”offered by the TalTech University of Tallinn (TTÜ, Estonia), thefinancial support in the frame of projects CSIC-201760E022, CSIC-201860E127 and the personalgrant with contract number 2018 186-11 to participate on the January2020 ACerS Winter Workshopfinanced by JECS Trust Board. This workwas also supported by the Estonian Research Council grant PRG643 (I.Hussainova)