Synthesis of a sol-gel glass with incorporation of Na2O is extremely difficult, as such glasses have a great tendency to crystallise. Slowly drying and aging over several days or weeks is usually required in sol-gel preparation procedures. This work reports a fast, novel route for the synthesis of bioglass powders in a considerably shortened period of 1h. A comparative study of sol-gel derived glasses made by this novel route using rotary evaporator drying, and a conventional route using oven drying and aging, revealed that the two methods produce stabilised (devitrified) bio glasses with virtually identical behaviour and properties. Indeed, in improved bioactivity. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was used to understand the structures of the synthesized powders, and MAS-NMR was used to look at the degree of polymerization. This innovative, rapid route was successfully demonstrated to produce glass and devitrified glass nanopowders more than one hundred times quicker than the quickest reported standard drying methods.
