Sintering effects of mullite-doping on mechanical properties of bovine hydroxyapatite.

In this study, sintering effects on microstructural behavior of bovine derived hydroxyapatite doped with powder mullite are considered in the temperature range between 1000°C and 1300°C. Results show that maximum values of both compressive strength and microhardness are achieved in the samples sintered at 1200°C for all mullite additions of 5, 7.5, 10 and 12.5wt%. Moreover, above 1000°C, decomposition of HA and new phase formations such as whitlockite and gehlenite play a major role in both compressive strength and microhardness properties which increase up to 10wt% mullite reinforcement.

The effect of heat treatment on the morphology of D-Gun sprayed hydroxyapatite coatings.

In this study, the morphology of the Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings sprayed on Ti alloy samples by Detonation Gun Spray (D-Gun) and the effect of aging before and after heat treatment in physiological solution were observed. Cross-sectional porosity and percentages of amorphous and crystal phase were measured using optical, electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. Differential Thermogravimetric Analysis (DTA) was performed to estimate the glass-crystalline phase transformation temperatures. Heat-treatment at 300, 500, 700, 800 and 1200 degrees C were carried out to confirm DTA results. As a final analysis, the aging effect using Ringer's solution for 1 week on heat-treated and non-heat-treated samples was measured. It was observed that, in D-Gun sprayed samples, the cross-sectional porosity stayed in the accepted 5% range as reported for other spraying techniques.(1-5) On the other hand, surface porosity measured using the water immersion method remained in the conventional porosity limit of 15% for non-heat-treated samples. Heat-treatment had a small influence on the porosity while the crystallinity increased considerably; in addition, aging had little effect on HA crystallinity for heat treated samples. This work showed that D-gun sprayed HA coatings had lower porosity and better integrity than other coatings, due to which we can expect better performance during in vivo applications.