Development of a new family of monolithic calcium (pyro)phosphate glasses by soft chemistry

The development of bioactive phosphate-based glasses is essential in biomaterials science, and especially for bone substitution applications. In this context, the preparation of amorphous calcium-phosphorus hydroxide/oxide monoliths at low temperature is a key challenge for being able to develop novel hybrid materials for these applications. We herein report for the first time the synthesis and physical chemical characterisation of a novel family of pyrophosphate-based glasses (with the formula: {[(Ca2+)1−x(H+/K+)2x]2[(P2O74−)1−y(PO43−)4y/3]} n(H2O)), which were prepared by soft chemistry using low temperatures (T