Influence of sodium fluoride on the synthesis of hydroxyapatite by gel method

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is a good candidate for bone substitutes due to its chemical and structural similarity to bone mineral. Hydroxyapatite has been grown by the gel method using sodium fluoride (NaF) as additive. The growth was carried out at room temperature under the physiological pH of 7.4. The addition of NaF has significantly reduced growth rate and the yield was much less when compared to pure system. The samples of pure and fluoride doped HA were sintered at 600, 900 and 1200 °C in ambient atmosphere. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were adopted to investigate the influence of NaF on the morphology, crystallinity, stability and phase purity of HA. EDAX and FTIR studies confirm that the fluoride is doped into the hydroxyapatite. Powder XRD and TGA results suggested that the incorporation of fluorine into the HA matrix improves the phase formation and crystallinity. SEM studies show that the microstructural morphology of HA changes from the fibers for pure to granular structure for the fluoride doped.