Synthesis and characterization of hydroxyapatite cement

This study deals with synthesizing hydroxyapatite bone cement as a bone substitute for clinical applications. The powder part of the cement is using β-tricalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, dicalcium phosphate and the liquid part contains NaH2PO4·2H2O solution with different concentrations. The effects of liquid concentration on the setting times of the cement have been investigated. XRD analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy were used to study the phase composition of calcium phosphate cement. Morphology and chemical analysis of the synthesized cement was performed using a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray analyser. In addition, the effect of soaking time of synthesized bone cement in simulated body fluid (SBF) on the final phase and strength has been studied. Soaking prepared cement in SBF solution for appropriate time resulted in transformation of the composition of the cement into hydroxyapatite and hence the strength of the cement has been increased.