Photo-luminescent hydroxyapatite coatings through a bio-mimetic process

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) is the major inorganic component in natural bones. Because HAp has the advantages of excellent biocompatibility, free of cell toxicity, and forming strong bonding to bone osteoinductively, it has been widely studied and prepared in many forms for orthopedic and dental applications. In the recent years, silicon based bio-chip was extensively studied. To improve the biocompatibility and search for novel application of bio-chip are not only an important aim but also a challenge. In the previous literatures, it's reported that HAp is relatively difficult to be coated onto a Si(1 0 0) substrate. In this study, we successfully manufactured crystalline HAp on to Si(1 0 0) using simplified supersaturated solution and investigated the structural characteristics through the measurements of XRD, FTIR, FE-SEM, and XPS. The photo-luminescent properties of the coatings were also studied.