Microwave-assisted biomimetic synthesis of hydroxyapatite using different sources of calcium

In this study, some properties of biomimetic synthesized hydroxyapatite by using different sources of calcium were investigated. Biomimetic synthesis of hydroxyapatite was carried out in microwave oven using 1.5 simulated body fluid (SBF) solution having different calcium sources with 800W power for 15min. As phosphorus source di-ammonium hydrogen phosphate ((NH₄)₂HPO₄) while for each sample as a calcium sources calcium chloride (CaCl₂), calcium nitrate tetra hydrate (Ca(NO₃)₂·4H₂O) and calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) were utilized, respectively. For comparison, precipitation process was also performed in only 1.5 SBF solution without calcium and phosphorus sources. The presence of phases in synthesized hydroxyapatite was confirmed by XRD. The crystallinity and crystalline size of the phases in as synthesized powders were also calculated by using XRD data. It was found that the unique phase is hydroxyapatite (HAp, Ca₅(PO₄)₃(OH)) by using the calcium nitrate tetra hydrate and calcium hydroxide sources, while the dominant phases are tri-calcium phosphates (TCP) and HAp for CaCl₂ source and 1.5SBF which does not contain any additional Ca source. SEM studies revealed that nano-hexagonal rods and nano-spherical hydroxyapatites could be synthesized by using this process. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis revealed that the Ca/P ratio near to be as 1.5 which is the value for HAp in bone. Raman and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) results combined with the X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicates that dominantly the present of single phase is HAp. The crystal size and fraction crystallinity of as synthesized HAp powders were changed between 29.5 and 45.4nm and 0.53-2.37, respectively. Results showed that microwave assisted biomimetic synthesis is a promising method for obtaining HAp powders in shorter process time.