Grain Growth in Sintered Natural Hydroxyapatite

E. Harabi, A. Harabi, L. Foughali, S. Chehlatt, S. Zouai, F.Z. Mezahi Faculty of Exact Science, Physics department, Ceramics Lab., Constantine University 1, Constantine 25000, Algeria.

Full Text PDF

Hydroxyapatite (HA: Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) can be synthesized using several methods or manufactured from natural materials such as coral or bone after removal of the organic matter by heating (denoted as NHA). The "in vitro" and "in vivo" studies showed that the natural apatite was well tolerated and has better osteoconductive properties than synthetic HA. In addition, the exploitation of natural source represents an economical way of synthesizing NHA by means of sintering, rather than by sol-gel techniques. For these reasons, the NHA was manufactured from cortical bovine bones in all our studies. Moreover, there has been much effort to improve the mechanical properties of HA by introducing foreign oxides or finding out other alternative processes such as grain growth control. Indeed, encouraging lower AGS instead of exaggerated grain growth may be jugged useful for many applications. Since the works carried out on the correlation between AGS and physico-chemical properties of NHA were very limited, the present study was mainly focused on its grain growth. A carful combination between the main parameters controlling NHA production such as milling techniques, compacting pressure, sintering temperature and holding time may lead to an interesting NHA based bio-ceramics. In this way, a simple and energetically vibratory multidirectional milling system using bimodal distribution of highly resistant ceramics has been used for obtaining sub-micron sized NHA powders. For example, the AGS was ranged between 0.75 and 1.40 μm (using intercept method) when NHA samples were sintered at 1250°C for 15 and 480 min, respectively.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.127.1161 PACS numbers: 81.05.Je, 81.20.Ev