The mechanical properties of a porous ceramic derived from a 30 nm sized particle based powder of hydroxyapatite for potential hard tissue engineering applications

Abstract

In this paper, synthesised nanometre sized hydroxyapatite (nano-HAP) powders composed of spherical 30 ± 5 nm particles were compacted and sintered at temperatures ranging from 650 to 1250℃ to form ceramics of varying porosity and mechanical strength. The size, crystalline structure and morphology of both the synthesised nano-HAP particle powders and the compacted and sintered ceramics were investigated using both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). Further characterisation techniques such as Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) particle surface area, porosity, bulk density, Vickers hardness and yield strength at various sintering temperatures were tested on sintered pellets and evaluated.