EFFECT OF CA/P AND PH IN THE WET-SYNTHESIS REACTION ON THE FORMATION OF DIFFERENT CALCIUM PHOSPHATE PHASES

Habib, M; Hussein, K; Fatahalla, N

doi:10.21608/auej.2017.19296

EFFECT OF CA/P AND PH IN THE WET-SYNTHESIS REACTION ON THE FORMATION OF DIFFERENT CALCIUM PHOSPHATE PHASES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mechanical Engineering Department, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/auej.2017.19296

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing new paradigm to use synthetic calcium phosphate biomaterials as bone substitutes in orthopedics applications. Their structure and composition are close to the human bone, and thus conferring them a good biocompatibility and osteoconductivity. Wet process is normally used for the synthesis of Hydroxyapatite (HA) and beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP). However, the wet process was reported to be less reproducible for fabrication of pure apatitic phases in comparison to other synthesis processes. In this study, it is hypothesized that a specific apatitic phase that is normally obtained from stoichiometric reaction can be synthesized by using non-stoichiometric based reactants in a reproducible way by controlling the pH value during the synthesis process. A factorial design with two factors and three repeats was implemented to examine the hypothesis [A: Ca/P (1.5, 1.55, 1.667) and B: pH (7.5, 9.5)]. All precipitated powders were dried and aged overnight and then sintered for 2 hours at 800 °C. The powders were analyzed for phase, group and morphological analysis by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), FTIR, and ESM/TEM, respectively. The results have revealed a better understanding of how to synthesize pure calcium phosphates phases for the repair of bone defects using the cost-effective wet chemical process. Small variation in the reactant molar ratio can significantly change the precipitated phases. Controlling the reaction pH can governor effectively the precipitation of a specific phase despite of the small variation in the molar ratio.

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