Effect of Surface Modification of Bioactive Glass on Properties of Poly-L-lactide Composite Materials

Abstract

The 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APS) surface modification of sol-gel bioactive glass (BG) was performed to improve the phase compatibility between poly-L-lactide (PLLA) and BG. The composite based on PLLA and modified BG was fabricated by using hot pressing methods. The effects of APS modification on the morphology of BG and mechanical properties of the PLLA/BG composite were investigated. The results indicated that uniformly dispersed BG particles, without agglomeration, were obtained after surface modification. Furthermore, the bending strength, bending modulus, and shearing strength of PLLA/BG-APS composites were all higher than those of unmodified composites. However, the bending strength and shearing strength of PLLA/BG-APS composites significantly decreased with increasing BG content for all, whereas the bending modulus increased.

Keywords:

• bioactive glass
• composite
• poly-L-lactide
• surface modification

Acknowledgment

This work was financially supported by the Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department (No. 11B045) and the Planning Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province, P. R. China (No. 2010SK3060).