The development of biocompatible materials allowing the local delivery of specific drugs is of high interest to repair pathological bone defects. The first part of this manuscript describes the synthesis and the characterisation of calcium phosphates glasses doped with gallium, which is a bone resorption inhibitor. The nature of the phosphate network is probed by 31P NMR and the Ga3+ local environments are studied 71Ga NMR at very high magnetic field (20T) and ultra-fast spinning frequency. The leaching behaviour of these glasses is investigated by NMR and ICP-AES. The obtained results indicate that the glass dissolution is nearly congruent and that Ga3+ doping improves the chemical durability. The second part of this work is dedicated to the study of the Bioglass® 45S5 which is a bioactive glass (SiO2-CaO-Na2O-P2O5 glassy system) used in bone repair surgery. Double-resonance NMR experiments are used to obtain information about the association between the phosphate units and the silicate network. NMR analyses are also used to characterize quantitatively the various species formed at the glass surface after immersion into a simulated body fluid for varying periods. Results obtained from NMR and other characterization methods revealed that the carbonated hydroxyapatite formed at glass surface shows strong similarities with biological apatites.
