Short-term physico-chemical reactions at the interface between bioactive
glass particles and biological fluids are studied and we focus our attention on
the measurements of O/Si atomic ratio. The studied bioactive glass is in the
SiO2-Na2O-CaO-P2O5-K2O-Al2O3-MgO system. The elemental analysis is performed at
the submicrometer scale by STEM associated with EDXS and EELS. We previously
developed an EDXS quantification method based on the ratio method and taking
into account local absorption corrections. In this way, we use EELS data to
determine, by an iterative process, the local mass thickness which is an
essential parameter to correct absorption in EDXS spectra. After different
delays of immersion of bioactive glass particles in a simulated biological
solution, results show the formation of different surface layers at the
bioactive glass periphery. Before one day of immersion, we observe the presence
of an already shown (Si,O,Al) rich layer at the periphery. In this paper, we
demonstrate that a thin electron dense (Si,O) layer is formed on top of the
(Si,O,Al) layer. In this (Si,O) layer, depleted in aluminium, we point out an
increase of oxygen weight concentration which can be interpreted by the
presence of Si(OH)4 groups, that permit the formation of a (Ca,P) layer.
Aluminium plays a role in the glass solubility and may inhibit apatite
nucleation. After the beginning of the (Ca,P) layer formation, the size of the
electron dense (Si,O) layer decreases and tends to disappear. After two days of
immersion, the (Ca,P) layer grows in thickness and leads to apatite
precipitatio