Chemical synthesis and characterization of magnesium substituted amorphous calcium phosphate (MG-ACP)

Amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) was synthesized by a simple aqueous precipitation using CaCl2 and Na3PO4 in the presence of MgCl2 to ensure the formation of the ACP phase at room temperature. Magnesium substituted ACP phases corresponding to two different compositions representing the two most prominent calcium phosphate phases (hydroxyapatite: Ca + Mg/P = 1.67 and tricalcium phosphate: Ca + Mg/P = 1.5) were synthesized by this simple approach. Both compositions of ACP phases resulted in their transformation into β-tricalcium phosphate upon heat treatment in air at 600 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD), heat treatment, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyses were used to characterize the phase, thermal stability, surface area, and morphology of the synthesized ACP powders corresponding to the two different nominal Ca/P compositions. Although it is known that α-TCP is the phase that appears upon heat treatment at 600 °C unsubstituted ACP, substitution of magnesium ion in ACP (both TCP and HA composition) stabilized the structure of β-TCMP phase at 600 °C. Moreover, FT-IR analysis revealed that the ACP phase regardless of the composition, exhibited characteristic bands corresponding to that of HA, with the exception of the ACP corresponding to HA composition which exhibited a prominent OH vibrational mode.