Glasses biomedical applications

Ceramics and glasses are distinguished primary by the presence respectively of crystalline or noncrystalline structure on the atomic scale. For noncrystalline silicate glass, biomedical applications have been a signifieant demand because the development of Bioglass . 

J.K. Bibby, N.L. Bubb, D.J. Wood, P.M. Mummery, Fluorapatite-mullite glass sputter coated TI6AI4V for biomedical applications, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 16 (2005) 379-385. 

Sensors incorporating glass or plastic optical fibers have demonstrated several advantages over electrosensors for biomedical applications. These sensors involve no electrical connections and hence are safe from that standpoint the leads are quite small and flexible they can be incorporated in catheters for multiple sensing where required, they can be implanted for relatively long periods. The fibers are considerably less than 1 millimeter in diameter. Where designed for simplicity, they often can be considered disposable. 

Huang et al. [176] described an integrated microfluidic chip (of PDMS and soda-lime glass) capable of performing DNA/RNA amplification, electroki-netic sample injection and separation, and online optical detection in an automatic mode. The authors tested its functionality for bacterial DNA of Streptococcus pneumoniae and RNA of dengue-2 vims. The NCE developed represented a crucial contribution to the fields of molecular biology, genetic analysis, infectious disease detection, and other biomedical applications. 

Knowles, J.C. Phosphate based glasses for biomedical applications. J. Mater. Chem. 2003, 13, 2395-2401. 

Zhitomirsky D et al (2009) Electrophoretic deposition of bioactive glass/polymer composite coatings with and without HA nanoparticle inclusions for biomedical applications. J Mater Process Technol 209(4) 1853... 

Commercial silver/silver-chloride reference electrodes are available in a variety of styles and sizes. They are often used as the internal reference electrodes in glass pH and other ion-selective electrodes. Ag/AgCl microelectrodes formed from very thin silver wire have found extensive use, for example, in biomedical applications such as in vivo studies of biological fluids and intracellular measurements, because of the miniaturization possible with these electrodes. 

Ceravital refers to a number of different compositions of glasses and glass-ceramics that were developed in the 1970s in Germany for biomedical applications. The only field in which Ceravital glass-ceramics are clinically used is in the replacement of the ossicular chain in the middle ear. In this application the mechanical properties of the material are sufficient to support the minimal applied loads. 

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