Hydroxyapatite (HA) nano powders (20-60 nm) were synthesized using a sol-gel route with calcium nitrate and phosphoric acid as calcium and phosphorus precursors, respectively. Double distilled water was used as a diluting media for HA sol preparation and ammonia was used to adjust the pH. After aging, the HA gel was dried at 65°C and calcined to different temperatures ranging from 200-800°C. The dried and calcined powders were characterized for phase composition using X-ray diffractometry, elemental dispersive X-ray and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy. The particle size and morphology were studied using transmission electron microscopy. Calcination revealed HA nano powders of increased particle size and crystallinity with increase in temperature. For all calcinations temperatures, the particle size distribution analysis of HA powders showed skewed distribution plot. At temperature of 700°C and above, formation of CaO was noticed which was attributed to phosphorous volatilization. This study showed that high purity HA with varying degrees of crystallinity could be obtained using this simple technique.
In this work, the sintering behaviour of hydroxyapatite (HA) at different temperatures was studied. Nano HA powders synthesized by sol-gel technique were uniaxially pressed at 30 MPa into pellets and cold isostatically pressed at 200 MPa. The pellets were sintered in air at temperatures ranging from 900°C to 1400°C with a holding time of 2 h. It was observed that, at a sintering temperature of 1200°C when the material was composed of pure HA phase, the samples exhibited densities of > 98.5 % of the theoretical value and possessed a hardness value of 5.89 GPa. Decomposition of HA into the secondary phases of TCP and CaO was found to occur at 1300°C and 1400°C, respectively. Changes in the microstructure, relative density and hardness of the sintered HA ceramics with the sintering temperature were also analyzed. The variation in the hardness was found to be dependent on the relative density up to a threshold grain size limit of 2 µm. However, beyond this threshold, no correlation existed between the two properties. Porosity and grain size were found to play an important role in determining the properties of the sintered HA compacts.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.