Effect of Thermal Treatment on the Structure and Properties of Hydroxyapatite

Resumo

X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy were used to demonstrate that hydroxyapatite produced by the precipitation method is a powder composed of anisometric particles with longitudinal size of 70–100 nm and transverse size of 7–9 nm. The particles are constituted by crystallites with longitudinal sizes of 22–24 nm and transverse sizes of 8–10 nm. At a temperature of 600°C, the crystallite sizes grow, and the volume porosity and specific surface area decrease. Synthetic hydroxyapatite has a low thermal stability as compared with hydroxyapatite of biological origin.