Synthesis of B-type carbonated hydroxyapatite by a new dissolution-precipitation method

Abstract

Carbonated hydroxyapatite (C-HAp) is one of the most attractive biomaterials for bone tissue engineering due to its compositional and biological similarity to the mineral part of human bone. In the present work, we have used a two-step fabrication process to precipitate a poorly crystalline Carbonated Hydroxyapatite (C-HAp) with nano-size particles at room temperature (20 °C) through the dissolution-precipitation process. For the first time, stoichiometric hydroxyapatite (S-HAp) was used as a precursor. The obtained C-HAp was evaluated for its structure; chemical composition and particle size using numerous analytical tools, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The chemical composition, carbonate content, and molar ratio (Ca/P) of the C-HAp phase was investigated by the corresponding X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (EDX). Therefore, the dissolution-precipitation reaction was confirmed to be useful to transform S-HAp to C-HAp.