A novel low temperature sol-gel synthesis process for thermally stable nano crystalline hydroxyapatite

Hydroxyapatite is a class of calcium phosphate-based bioceramic, frequently used as a bone graft substitute due to its chemical and structural similarity with natural bone mineral. In the present investigation, a novel method is developed to synthesize pure, stable, stoichiometric nano crystalline hydroxyapatite (HA: Ca-10(PO4)(6)(OH)(2)) at room temperature via alcohol based sol-gel route using Ca(NO3)(2).4H(2)O and NH4H2PO4 as calcium and phosphorous precursors, respectively. We have developed a novel method for the synthesis of nanometer sized HA particles (HAp) without using any catalyst and was synthesized without any grinding process during the gel formation. Polycrystalline HAp synthesized by this new technique is characterized by XRD, FTIR, TGA, SEM and TEM. (C) 2012 Elsevier By. All rights reserved.