Nanostructured hydroxyapatite by microwave sintering.

In this work, nanostructured HA ceramics with dense microstructure were prepared by microwave sintering process and their microstructures were compared with the case of conventional sintering. Commercially obtained HA powder with Ca/P molar ratio of 1.67 was used as a starting material. The powder of granular type consists of nanocrystalline particles of 20-30 nm in size. The as-received HA powder or the powder calcined at 800 degrees C, followed by ball-milling was used for the preparation of HA disks. Microwave sintering was conducted at 1200 degrees C for 5 min with a heating rate of 50 degrees C/min. HA ceramics with the sintered densities of approximately 96-97% of the theoretical were obtained. XRD analysis showed that all detectable peaks are identical to pure hydroxyapatite. The HA sintered body made of calcined and ball-milled powder showed uniform microstructure with grain size of 300-400 nm and with finer sub-grains of 30-40 nm.