Spray drying of hydroxyapatite powders: The effect of spray drying parameters and heat treatment on the particle size and morphology

The physical and chemical properties of spray dried hydroxyapatite (SD-HA) are significantly depended on precipitation and spray drying (SD) process parameters. This study presents the effects of precipitation pH, solid content, slurry feed rate, atomization pressure, hot air temperature and hot air flow rate on the particle size distribution of SD-HA. Moreover, the physical and chemical properties of SD-HAs and heat treated micro-granules depending on the precipitation pH were investigated. Taguchi Experimental Design (DoE) was employed to optimize the parameters and to determine the significant factors. The physical properties of SD-HA and heat treated micro-granules were analyzed via particle size analyzer, SEM and TEM. RAMAN and FTIR were carried out to examine the chemical properties. Increasing of the precipitation pH led to slightly increase of the median particle size and the high temperature stability of the SD-HA. DoE results demonstrated the most significant SD parameters as atomization pressure and slurry feed rate. The increases in heat treatment temperature decreased the specific surface area, pore volume and particle size of SD-HA, while increased the crystallinity and powder density. SD-HA were stable up to 1250 °C and decomposed at approximately 1450 °C.