Crystal structure and formation mechanism of spherical porous hydroxyapatite synthesised in simulated body fluid

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe synthesized spherical porous hydroxyapatite by a wet method using simulated body fluid and studied its structure. A simulated body fluid with a Ca/P molar ratio of 0.09 was prepared using Dulbecco’s PBS, and spherical porous particles with an average particle size of 13 μm were precipitated therein. All spherical particles were covered with submicron plate-like crystals on the surface. Cross-sectional images showed that pores of submicron to 2 μm in size were present at the centre of the spherical particles. In addition, the plate crystals present on the surface were identified as hydroxyapatite (HAp) with the (002) HAp surface in the longitudinal direction and (100) HAp surface in the width direction, extending in the c-axis direction. Here, we discuss the formation mechanism of the spherical porous HAp.