Calcium hydroxyapatite, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 ceramics prepared by aqueous sol–gel processing

Aqueous sol–gel chemistry routes based on ammonium–hydrogen phosphate as the phosphorus precursor and calcium acetate monohydrate as source of calcium ions have been developed to prepare calcium hydroxyapatite samples with different morphological properties. In the sol–gel processes, an aqueous solutions of ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) or tartaric acid (TA) as complexing agents were added to the reaction mixture. The monophasic Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 samples were obtained by calcination of precursor gels for 5 h at 1000 °C. The phase transformations, composition and micro-structural features in the polycrystalline samples were studied by thermoanalytical methods (TGA/DTA), infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was shown that adjusting the nature of complexing agent in the aqueous sol–gel processing can be used to control the morphology of the ceramic samples.