Development of a bioactive glass-polymer composite for wound healing applications.

This study reports the production and characterization of a composite material for wound healing applications. A bioactive glass obtained by sol-gel process and doped with two different metal ions was investigated. Silver (Ag) and cobalt (Co) were chosen due to their antibacterial and angiogenic properties, respectively, very beneficial in the wound healing process. Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) fibers were produced by electrospinning (ES) from a polymeric solution using acetone as a solvent. After optimization of the ES parameters, two main suspensions were prepared, namely: PCL containing bioactive glass nanoparticles (BG-NP) and PCL with Ag2O and CoO doped BG-NP (DP BG-NP), which were processed with different concentrations of BG-NP (0.25%, 0.5% and 0.75wt%). The composite membranes were characterized in terms of morphology, fiber diameter, weight loss, mineralization potential and mechanical performance.