Investigating the Microstructure and Biological Properties of Baghdadite Bioceramic Nanoparticles Synthesized by Sol-Gel Process

Bioceramics are very popular materials for tissue engineering applications due to their properties such as suitable bioactivity, biocompatibility, excellent compressive strength, and wear resistance. One of the most widely used bioceramics is calcium silicates. Calcium silicates are biocompatible and bioactive with relatively good mechanical properties, but high degradation rate. Elements such as magnesium (Mg), zirconium (Zr), and zinc (Zn) are added to calcium silicates to resolve this problem. Baghdadite (Ca3ZrSi2O9) with good biological properties is one of the calcium silicate based ceramics in which the zirconium element has replaced part of the calcium element. Also, the presence of calcium and zirconium elements has increased the biological and mechanical properties of this material. The purpose of this research was to synthesize Baghdadite powder using the sol-gel process and to characterize it using X-ray diffraction test to study the formed phases, halo test for antibacterial properties investigations, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to determine the functional groups, and field emission scanning electron microscope to examine the morphology of the powder. The results showed that the single-phase Baghdadite phase was formed with the particle size of 225 ± 15 nm and lumpy morphology. The elemental analysis test confirmed the presence of the main elements of Baghdadite (Ca, Si, Zr, and O) in the synthesized sample. Moreover, the elemental map analysis confirmed the uniformity of Baghdadite constituent elements. The results of the Disk diffusion test revealed that Baghdadite had no appropriate antibacterial properties against staphylococcus bacteria, but showed a slight antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli bacteria.