Mechanochemical synthesis of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite from Ca(H2 PO4)2 .H2 O, CaO, Ca(OH)2, and P2 O5 mixtures

Abstract

This paper reports the progress of the mechanochemical synthesis of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite (HA) starting from six different powder mixtures containing Ca(H2 PO4)2 .H2 O, CaO, Ca(OH)2, and P2 O5 . The reaction kinetics of HA phase formation during high-energy ball milling was systematically investigated. The mechanochemical reaction rate of the Ca(H2 PO4)2 .H2 O–Ca(OH)2 powder mixture found to be very fast as the HA phase started to form at around 2 min and finished after 30 min of ball milling. All six powder mixtures were transformed entirely into HA, with the crystallite size between 18.5 and 20.2 nm after 1 h and between 22.5 and 23.9 nm after 2 h of milling. Moreover, the lattice strain was found to be 0.8 ± 0.05% in the 1 h milled powder and 0.6 ± 0.05% in all six powders milled for 2 h. This observation, i.e., coarsening of the HA crystal and gradual decrease of the lattice strain with the increase of milling time, is opposite to the results reported by other researchers. The gradual increase in crystallite size and decrease in lattice strain result from dynamic recovery and recrystallization because of an increase in the local temperature of the powder particles trapped between the balls and ball and reactor wall during the high-energy collision.