Research
Our research evolves around melt-derived glasses, including bioactive glasses, phosphate glasses or aluminosilicate glasses, and how their atomic structure controls their properties.
Glass melting
Bioactive glass particles (left) and apatite crystals (right) occluding dentinal tubules
Bioactive glasses surface react with physiological fluids and form apatite on their surface. They are used clinically as bone grafts as they form an intimate bond with living bone and, over time, fully degrade in the body. Recently, they also have attracted interest for use in oral care materials, such as toothpaste for treating dentine hypersensitivity and aiding tooth remineralisation. Bioactive glasses act as release vehicles for therapeutically active ions such as fluoride (increases bone formation and prevents dental caries) or zinc (bactericidal).
Porous sintered phosphate glass scaffolds
Phosphate glasses, as the name suggests, consist of phosphate (rather than silicate or borosilicate) as the glass former. They may dissolve completely in aqueous solution, and their solubility can easily be adjusted via their composition. Therapeutic ions such as strontium, zinc or fluoride can be incorporated into the glass to be released upon dissolution, for stimulation of bone growth, wound healing or for prevention of infections. We are particularly interested in the mechanism of phosphate glass dissolution, which we study using various techniques including 31P NMR spectroscopy.
Aluminosilicate glass as a smartphone display cover
Aluminosilicate glasses are highly relevant for engineering applications such as glass fibres for use in composites (e.g. for wind turbine blades) or as touchscreen covers. As glass-ceramics, they are used for example as cooker tops. We are interested to see how changes in glass composition and structure affect glass properties such as chemical durability, mechanical or thermal properties.
In the biomedical area, aluminosilcate glasses are used in glass ionomer dental cements (see below).
Schematic glass ionomer cement
Glass ionomer cements are commonly used in dentistry. As they form a chemical bond to bone, they are also of potential interest for orthopaedic applications. Glass ionomer cements set by an acid-base reaction between an acid-degradable glass and a polymeric acid such as poly(acrylic acid). Dental ionomer cements contain aluminium, which plays an important role in cement setting and stability. However, as aluminium is a neurotoxin and also negatively affects bone mineralisation, we are interested in new aluminium-free ionomer cements as an alternative for orthopaedic applications.