Bioactive Glasses: Properties, Composition and Recent Applications

More than 50 years have passed since Professor Larry L. Hench discovered Bioglass. However bioactive glasses still awake the fascination of scientists, lecturers, students, dentists, orthopedic surgeons, etc. all over the World. The research developed during the subsequent decades has resulted in new materials that significantly differ from the original melt-derived Bioglass. The use of the sol-gel process in the 1990's and the discovery of mesoporous bioactive glasses in the 2000's revealed new potential applications in the field of bone regeneration and drug delivery platforms. Besides, the development of rapid prototyping techniques has allowed manufacturing bioglass-based 3D scaffolds in combination with polymers, which boosts the long-standing expectative of using bioactive glasses for the treatment of critical bone defects. Finally, the advances in nanomedicine have opened new research lines involving the synthesis and development of bioactive glass nanoparticles. 'Bioactive glasses: properties, composition and recent applications' consists of ten chapters written be worldwide recognized experts in this field. The book covers the most important topics in the field of bioactive glasses, from its discovering to the most recent advances in preparation methods and applications. This book is addressed to researchers involved in the field of bioceramics, but it also an excellent tool for undergraduate and PhD students, given that nowadays Biomaterials Science is a subject included in the program of many universities. Only knowing the discoveries that fifty years ago fascinated us, our students will understand the current efforts to expand the applications of bioactive glasses.