Introducing the fluorine doped natural hydroxyapatite-titania nanobiocomposite ceramic

In the present research, natural hydroxyapatite (NHA) was synthesized from bovine bones and then fluorine was doped into the NHA matrix to produce fluorine doped NHA (FNHA; natural fluor-hydroxyapatite) in optimum conditions. At the end an FNHA-TiO2 nanobiocomposite ceramic with excellent biocompatibility and good chemical stability was synthesized through a mechanochemical route and a subsequent two step sintering (TSS) process. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), inductive coupled plasma (ICP), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used as the means for gathering and analysis of the results. According to the obtained results, TiO2 can prevent early decomposition of FNHA by the formation of the CaTiO3 phases and hence strengthen the interactions between the apatite particles which results in the increase of the mechanical properties. Besides, TiO2 provides more SiOH nucleation sites for the formation of the apatite layers and hence more bioactivity.