Facile synthesis of mesoporous bioactive glasses with controlled shapes

In this work, a facile method was developed for fabrication of mesoporous bioactive glasses (BGs) with controlled shapes using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as templating agent for sol-gel process. The morphologies, specific surface areas and pore sizes of the BGs were characterized by FE-SEM, TEM, and the BET and BJH methods, respectively. Rod-like BGs with mesoporous structures and high specific surface areas were prepared using CTAB as the templating agent. The shaping of the samples depicted a dynamic process from sphere to short rod then to long rod as the CTAB concentration was increased. This study presents an effective approach for controlling the spherical and rod-like structures of BGs.