Investigation of the Pore Morphology of the Hydroxyapatite-Based Bicomposites Processed by Two Step Sintering

Abstract

Porous hydroxyapatite (HAp) based biocomposites used in biomedical applications were developed in this paper as artificial bone substitute for vertebrae grafts. The trabecular or spongy bone tissue is an open-cell porous network having 40-90% porosity. In order to obtain a porous structure calcium carbonate and ammonium bicarbonate were added as foaming agents to the biocomposite matrix. The biocomposite matrix was prepared using submicronic powder particles of HAp and titanium hydride powder, which was added as reinforcement’s precursor as well as foaming agent. The aim of this study is to emphasize the effect of the foaming agent additions on the pores morphology by performing analyses at both macro and micro scale. These analyses consist of linear measurements, surface auto-detection and statistics of the pores and optical images as well. The powders mixture was homogenized in a planetary ball mill, uniaxial cold compacted and then heated in argon atmosphere using the two step sintering technique.