Morphological and Thermophysical Behavior of Hidroxyapatite Powders Processed by Mechanical Milling

Abstract

The current research represents one section of our studies concerning the improvement of the biocompatibility related to the biocomposite materials for bone grafts application. The submicronic/nanometric hydroxyapatite stands for the progress in biocompatibility. This study highlights the wet mechanical milling process and its effects on the morphological and thermophysical properties of the hydroxyapatite powder particles (30-50µm as raw material) obtained by this method (500 nm average). The scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) facility point out the morphological and chemical compositional features of the processed powders during 10 hours in dry argon atmosphere. The thermal analysis (TA) in argon atmosphere, too, reveals the influence of the milling parameters on the thermal effects generated by the processed hydroxyapatite powders. The experimental results of our research validate some milling mechanisms reported by the literature for wet/dry mechanochemical process conditions.