Hydroxyapatite powder was mechanochemically synthesized from calcium pyrophosphate (Ca2P2O7) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) using a solid-state reaction. The two powders were mixed in distilled water, milled for 8 hours, dried and calcined at 1100 degrees C for 1 hour. The phase(s) formed was analyzed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that hydroxyapatite was not the only one formed. This result will be used as the starting point to produce a single-phase hydroxyapatite in terms of excess hydroxyl group in a mechanochemical reaction.
Glass-ceramics are a group of materials that takes advantage of the various glass-forming methods before they are subsequently heat-treated in a controlled manner to effect nucleation and crystallization to produce crystalline materials. The production of glassceramic materials is to overcome the low mechanical strength in pure glassy materials. In this work, a study on the crystallisation of a soda-lime-silica glass was undertaken to ascertain how the processing parameters affect the crystallization of such glasses, viz. either via a single or two-step heat-treatment procedure, as well as the effect of soaking duration at the heat-treatment temperature. A soda-lime-silica glass system was chosen because the raw materials for producing such glasses are readily available and can be considered to be the cheapest. The glass produced was examined by thermal analysis to determine the nucleation and crystallization temperatures before they were heat-treated using a single-step and a two-stage heat-treatment procedures. The resultant glassceramics produced were characterized using x-ray diffraction as well as by scanning electron microscopy. The results thus obtained showed that a two-stage heat-treatment procedure is more successful in producing a well-crystallized glass-ceramic product.
In this work, nanometer HA crystals have been synthesized via wet chemical precipitation and characterized. This research studies how key synthesis parameters affect the size and phase purity of the produced HA. Characterization work was carried out using X-ray powder diffraction method and scanning electron microscopy for phase identification and particle sizing, respectively.