Surface study of selected biomaterials using vibrational spectroscopy

Vibrational spectroscopy has been extensively used for in vitro and in vivo investigations of degradation mechanism and kinetics of different biomedical materials as well as it has been used to characterize the crystalline and amorphous domains in bio-mineralization process. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy methods are valuable tools in the biomaterials engineering allowing to study processes occurring during their preparation. In vitro tests, where the materials are immersed in simulated body fluids and/or artificial saliva, were used to evaluate the biocompatibility of biomaterials. This kind of tests are a wide range of repeatable and reproducible methods, which are regulated by international standards for commercial use and scientific development of new materials and products. The aim of this work was to examine phase composition of materials applied in dentistry. The bioactivity of such biomaterials was studied by immersing the samples in synthetic body fluid and artificial saliva. The changes were determined by the Fourier transform infrared and Raman microspectroscopy as well as scanning electron microscopy. It was found that results obtained by vibrational spectroscopy show the differences between the studied samples. Chemical reactions occurring during incubation of cements in artificial saliva as well as in synthetic body fluid result in formation of phosphates which deposit on the cement surface