Preparation of Pu-doped fluorapatite

By using Na+ as a charge compensator and varying sintering conditions, Pu3+ and Pu4+ were incorporated on the Ca site of fluorapatite through sol–gel synthesis, as evidenced by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. It appears that Pu incorporation would be unlikely if prepared by a dry powder method, which has implications for previous radiation damage studies of fluorapatite doped with 238Pu.