Isoioni c isotope exchange data of 45Ca2+ and 32PO."-in a saturated soluti on with hydroxylapatite at 25°C, collected by Avnimelech, have been re int erpre ted on the basis that the processes con s isted of three pool s: hyd ration shell , s urface layer a nd " rec rys talli zati on of crystallit es." These processes are regarded as st ri ctl y separable. Thi s theoreti call y a ll ows: (i) a quantitative e valuati on of the constants in vo lved in the processes; (ii ) an estimati on of the exc han ge c apaciti es of hydration and s urface laye rs (fast poo ls) whi ch may be pH-de pe nd e nt ; a nd (iii ) a dete rminati on of the isoioni c exchange rat e constant s. The consta nts are esse nti a ll y the same for Ca 2 + a nd P04 3 -at a give n 1'1 -1 if the cross-sectional areas of the ions a re take n as 23 A,2 and 33 A,2 respectively: they, perhaps, inc rease linearly with the hyd roge n ion conce ntrati on of the soluti ons.The effects of three consec utive abru pt dilutions of the radioactive ion s without c hanging the concentrations (or pH) of the nonradioactive co mpon e nt s of the so luti on are predi ctab le by a mathemati cal mode l based on th e comple te reversibility of the two fa s t pools and the kineti cs of the in-evers ible third poo l.Ke y words: Dilution effec t, at same pH and concentrati on; hydration s hell , role of; hydroxylpatite , at diffe re nt pH s; isotopi c excha nge, isoion ic; recrysta lli zat ion , role of; s urface layer, role or.
. IntroductionThe determination of th e iso ioni c isotope exchange rates of 45Ca2+ and 3 2 P04 3 -in a saturated soluti on with hydroxy lap-. atite ("bone mineral", OHAp) may have some fundam ental role in understand ing th e growth, dissolution, adhesion mechani sms and calcium and phosphate homeostasis of bone and tooth ti ssues. An adequate experimental stud y with proper th eoretical understanding of the exc hange mechanism should also throw some light on the surface chem istry of " hydroxylapatite which is of immense importance in th e fi elds . of mineral processing and agriculture in addition to dental and medical research. Exchange experiments have been carried out by a number of investigators [1-6V In some cases, the studies were conducted under conditions where other interactions such as dissolution, prec ipitation and hydrolysis were also present and, therefore, in suc h cases th e application of exchange I kinetics is evidently not valid. We have chosen to reinterpret the data collected by Avni melech [4][5][6][7]. These experiments were performed under th e conditions of saturation at various hydrogen ion concentrations at 25°C using a homogeneous nonlabile solid phase which was stab ilized by prolonged boiling. We have treated Avnimelec h's full data, although partial treatments have been reported [4,7]Various th eoreti cal mod els have bee n proposed to explain th e kin etics of the iso ion ic exchange process with hydroxylapatite. In general , the iso ionic exchange is assumed to comprise three [1,4, 91] or more [3 , 8] processes ,...