Nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite ceramics prepared by hydrolysis in polyol medium

This Letter describes a new approach for the synthesis of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles, which involves precipitation and hydrolysis reactions conducted in polyol medium. In fact, ammonium-hydrogen phosphate and calcium nitrate were dissolved in polyol, and then heated at the boiling point of the polyol (ethane1, 2diol or propane1, 2diol). Besides, the phase and composition of the polycrystalline were studied by TGA/DTA, FT-IR, TEM and XRD techniques. The nanoparticles thus obtained present interesting morphological characters varying from needle to very thin platelet. Moreover, the hydroxyapatite prepared in ployol shows higher cristallinity in comparison with that obtained by other ‘chimie douce’ methods.