Research Projects

The main objective of the planned research is to develop multifunctional gallium based mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) nano powders doped with rare earth ions (RE) by emulsion-assisted sol-gel process. Suitable engineering strategies will be adopted and implemented to overcome the existing limitations of available nano forms of MBGs, such as polydispersity and biocompatibility. It is expected that modifications of the basic glass composition (SiO2-CaO-P2O5) by the introduction of Gallium oxide and Lithium oxide and additional luminescent ions (RE) will contribute to obtain materials with improved or novel biological activity and functionality (e.g. by inducing antibacterial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, osteoinductive or photocatalytic properties). The development of such a MBG will cover significant aspects of materials engineering including the design of appropriate material composition, devising suitable synthesis technique (sol-gel method and its optimisation) for achieving the desired property enhancement of the synthesized mesoporous bioglass. Selection of relevant characterization tools for studying the physico-chemical properties, standardization of MBG nano powders and the use of developed multifunctional MBGs for variety of medical applications, such as drug delivery, implants for bone and dental restoration or regeneration, and bioactive coatings of metallic implants in tissue engineering.