Calcium phosphates as substitution of bone tissues

Abstract

Abstract Calcium phosphates with clinical applications are used in reconstructive surgery. When dealing with the repairing of a skeletal section, two extremely diverse routes could be initially considered: to replace the damaged part or to substitute it regenerating the bone. This second option is in fact the role played by calcium phosphates, which can be classified among the bioactive ceramics group. Bioceramics, and therefore, calcium phosphates, exhibit very good biocompatibility and bone integration qualities, and constitute the materials showing closest similarity to the mineral component of bone; this fact, together with their bioactivity, make them very good candidates for bone regeneration. This review is focused on calcium phosphate ceramics; therefore, it is important to analyse firstly the biological calcium phosphates as components of natural hard tissues, that is, bone and teeth, and then to look for synthetic methods able to produce calcium deficient carbonate apatites with nanometric size, i.e., showing similar features to the biological apatites. In the present work, we describe the synthesis procedures to obtain in the laboratory calcium deficient carbonate nanoapatite both in bulk and thin film forms, as well as the characterization methods applied to these materials, with particular incidence in the electron microscopy.