Synthesis and characterization of hydroxyapatite (HA) and silicon substituted hydroxyapatite (SI-HA) produced by a precipitation method

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Date
2009
Authors
Le, Thi Bang
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Abstract
The precipitation method is a successful route to synthesize high purity hydroxyapatite (HA) and silicon-substituted hydroxyapatite (Si-HA) at low temperatures. In this research, calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) and phosphoric acid (H3PO4) were chosen as starting materials to synthesize HA. During synthesis, the reaction was carried out under vigorous stirring at various parameters. As-prepared HA powders were calcined at different temperatures of 700, 850, 1000 and 1200oC for 1 hour. The results indicated that high purity HA was obtained and is stable up to 1200oC when the aging time is prolonged to 24 hours. Different concentrations of reactants, viz. 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 M were also studied. The results indicated that nano-size HA particles were obtained at all the concentrations whereas pure stoichiometric HA with high thermal stability of up to 1200oC was obtained at concentration of 0.5 and 1.0 M. Based on the optimum conditions which were investigated in the synthesis of HA, the precipitation method was again employed to synthesize silicon-substituted HA with silicon contents of 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6% by weight using silicon acetate [Si(OCOCH3)4] as the Si source. The as-prepared HA and Si-HA powders/pellets were calcined at different calcination temperatures of 1150, 1200 and 1250oC. The results showed that pure Si-HA samples were successfully prepared at all three silicon contents. At all the calcination temperatures, pure Si-HA at silicon content of 0.4 and 1.6 wt% was obtained whilst Si-HA at silicon content of 0.8 wt% decomposed into รก-TCP at 1250oC. The effect of silicon in HA induced a slight increase in lattice parameters of apatite structure resulting in slight shifting of XRD pattern of Si-HA samples. In addition, the silicon in hydroxyapatite inhibited densification at low temperature (1150oC) and this effect being more significant as the level of silicon substitution increased. A near-full density (>90%) was achieved in pure HA at 1200oC whilst the Si-HA sample reached this density at 1250oC. SEM observation clearly showed that silicon substitution also inhibited grain growth at high temperatures (1200 and 1250oC). The inhibition of grain growth increased as the silicon content increased. At a nearly full density, the hardness value of Si-HA sample reached the comparable value with HA sample. However, higher strength was achieved in Si-HA samples, and this reached a highest value of 15.93 MPa at 1250oC for sample prepared at 1.6 % of silicon.
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Master
Keywords
Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering , Hydroxyapatite , Silicon substituted hydroxyapatite
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