Sol-gel

Engineering

Materials science

Apatite

Chemical engineering

Nanotechnology

Composite material

Bioactive glass

Mechanical strength

Compressive strength

Materials Letters

This paper reports a new method to obtain macroporous bioactive glasses by sol–gel and pore former technologies. The in vitro tests showed that the samples had good apatite-forming ability. Noticeably, these bioglasses exhibit high specific surface areas and excellent mechanical performances. The compressive strength is as high as 34.4±5.7 MPa. This method may be a useful approach for preparation of scaffolds for tissue engineering.

A new route to prepare macroporous bioactive sol–gel glasses with high mechanical strength