Low temperature preparation of α-tricalcium phosphate and its mechanical properties

Abstract

In this work, ?-tricalcium phosphate (?-TCP) was successfully prepared by the thermal transformation of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) precursor. ?-cyclodextrin (?-CD) was used for preparation of ACP precursor and played an important role in designing its special structure. The phase composition and microstructures of the obtained ?-TCP at different annealing temperature were analysed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope, and confirmed that ?-TCP can be prepared at 650?C for 3 h using ACP as precursor, which is much lower than the phase transition temperature of ?-TCP. Mechanical properties were tested 24 h after mixing the obtained ?-TCP with 30 wt.% of deionised water. The compressive strength and the flexural strength were 26.4MPa and 12.0MPa, respectively. The flexural strength was higher than that of ?-TCP prepared by other methods.nema