Comparative mechanical characterisation of 13–93 bioactive glass and hybrid scaffolds for bone regeneration
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Biomaterial bone scaffolds offer a promising alternative to traditional treatments. Bioactive glass has shown promise however its clinical application is limited by its poor mechanical properties. Flexible hybrids are a potential solution. Herein, previous studies incorporated calcium into a silica/poly(tetrahydrofuran)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (SiO₂/PTHF/PCL-diCOOH) sol-gel hybrid to enhance its mechanical performance. We firstly compared these material scaffolds to 13–93 bioactive glass (13–93 BG) (54.6% SiO2, 22.1% CaO, 6.0% Na2O, 7.7% MgO, 7.9% K2O, and 1.7% P2O5, in mol%) scaffolds. We reveal that the hybrid material exhibits a randomised porous microstructure and superior mechanical deformability, whereas the 13–93 BG scaffolds remain stiffer and more brittle. Micro-computed tomography (µCT) quantification reveals that the glass scaffolds underwent less shrinkage after direct ink writing (DIW) than the hybrid scaffolds, enabling easier reproduction of the design files. We demonstrate that the hybrid scaffold can withstand strains of up to 7%, mimicking the elastic behaviour of bone, while the 13–93 BG scaffold fails at 2% strain. Finite element (FE) analysis revealed a more decentralized stress distribution and higher local strain within the hybrid scaffold, whereas the 13–93 BG scaffold showed high stress concentration at strut junctions in line with a higher risk of brittle failure. The characterisation methods applied in this study can be extended to other biomaterials, providing valuable insights for biomaterials research and guiding scaffold design for bone regeneration.
Date Issued
2026-05-22
Date Acceptance
2026-03-26
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2026, 16
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
16
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41933115
PII: 10.1038/s41598-026-46620-9
Subjects
Bioactive glass
Biomaterial
Bone regeneration
Mechanical characterisation
µCT
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
15905
Date Publish Online
2026-04-03