Crystallization behavior of 45S5 bioactive glass modified by therapeutic ions

This is the first study that investigates the crystallization behavior of strontiumand copper-doped bioactive glasses by both isothermal and nonisothermal methods using differential thermal analysis (DTA) data. DTA results showed that bioactive glasses are suitable for glass-ceramic production. Isothermal and nonisothermal DTA experiments indicated that the crystallization activation energies of strontium-doped bioactive glasses are in the range of 304.1-327.7 kJ/mol, whereas the activation energies of copper-doped bioactive glasses change in the range of 219.13-263.20 kJ/mol. It was found that crystallization activation energies of strontium-doped glasses are higher than those of the copper-doped glasses. Avrami exponent, n, values of bioactive glasses showed that the bulk crystallization was found to predominate in all samples. Results revealed that isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of strontium-and copper-doped bioactive glasses are in agreement within the experimental error.