Rapid growth of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles using ultrasonic irradiation

A rapid, environmental friendly and low-cost method to prepare hydroxyapatite nanoparticles is proposed. In this method, hydroxyapatite is produced in a sonicated pseudo-body solution. The sonication time was found effective in the formation of the crystalline phase of nanoparticles. In our experimental condition, 15 min sonication resulted in the most pure hydroxyapatite phase. Also it was shown that growth temperature is a crucial factor and hydroxyapatite crystallizes only at 37 °C. The particles formed by sonication were generally smaller and more spherical than those obtained without sonication. Sonication increased the hydroxyapatite crystal growth rate up to 5.5 times compared to non-sonication condition. The comparison between the specific surface area of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles obtained by sonication and without sonication demonstrated that sonication increased the specific surface area from 63 m2/g to 107 m2/g and decreased the size of nanoparticles from 30 nm to 18 nm. Analysis on the pore structure demonstrated that the fractal structures obtained with and without sonication were considerably different.