Abstract
Octacalcium phosphate (OCP) is regarded as a precursor of hydroxyapatite (HA) which is a main inorganic comstituent of human bones and teeth. OCP is becoming regarded as an important biomaterial. Recently, implanted OCP was found to be converted to apatitic phase in the body and support bone regeneration. Therefore, it is important to reveal the transformation mechanism of OCP to HA for revealing the mechanism of bone formation and for the development of biomedical materials for bone. In this study, we focused on the dissolution of OCP and precipitation of HA. OCP particles were immersed in distilled water at 60 °C. The temporal change of the immersed powders and immersing solution were examined, and the transformation mechanism of OCP to HA was discussed. As there was an unreactive period in the first stage of the transformation, HA crystals seemed to grow easily once HA nuclei were formed. It is speculated that HA nuclei formed on OCP crystals by heterogeneous nucleation, and then HA crystals grow using calcium and phosphoric ions supplied from dissolved OCP.
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