Physicochemical properties of TiO2/Hydroxyapatite nanocomposite

Abstract

The TiO2/Hydroxyapatite (TiO2/HAp) nanocomposites with different ratios were prepared by precipitation of hydroxyapatite in the presence of TiO2 or TiO(OH)2. The physicochemical properties of TiO2/HAp material were characterized using the batch equilibration method and BET, XPS, DRS, FTIR analyses. The XPS result showed that binding energy of Ca-P was 347.2eV, that of P-OH was 133.3eV and the Ti 2p spectrum could be resolved into two spin-orbit pairs 2p3/2 and 2p1/2 with binding energies of 458.6 and 464.1 eV, respectively, which are the characteristics of titanium(IV) in TiO2. The FTIR result suggested that the formation of the TiO2/HAp nanocomposites have not changed the structure nor the phase of the hydroxyapatite crystals. However, the physicochemical properties of TiO2/HAp nanocomposites such as pHpzc values, band gap energy, specific surface area and pore volume were higher than those of pure TiO2 and HAp.