The influence of two divalent cations, Cu2+ and Mn2+, on teh structure, sintering,a nd crystallisation of glasses and glass-ceramics in the diopside-calcium pyrophosphate system (90 wt% diopside (CaMgSi2O6), 10 wt.% calcium pyrophosphate (Ca2P2O7)) was investigated. Glasses with 1, 3 and 5 wt% MnO or CuO additives were prepared by melt-quenching and characterized by XRD, 29Si and 31 P NMR, DTA, and FTIR. This revealed that the silicate network is predominantly coordinated in Q2 (si) units for all glasses, while phosphorus tends to inhabit an orthophosphate environment. All glasses had a high rate of bioactivity after immersion in simulated body fluid. A slight depolymerization was observed in doped glasses leading to lower Tg values in comparison with the parent glass. All glass-ceramics exhibited the formation of diopside as the primary crystalline phase after sintering at 850 deg C/1h.
