Electrophoretic Deposition of Hydroxyapatite

The purpose of this study was to investigate the deposition of the hydroxyapatite (HA) coating via the electrophoresis procedure. The HA deposition was performed in an ethanol, methanol, acetone and isopropanol suspension. Methanol was found to be the best deposition media. Among the different environmental conditions, including the encapsulation of the samples under two vacuum types of pressure (10-5-10-4 and 2×10-2 Torr) and also the purge of the argon gas in the tube-like furnace, the optimum environment was the one demonstrating the encapsulation under the vacuum pressure of 2×10-2 Torr (washing with argon gas of 99.9% purity). After the examination of 3 sintering temperatures (1020, 1050 and 1100 ºC), the sintering temperature at 1050 ºC illustrated the most desired results. The samples sintered under these conditions were apparently intact, most of the interfacial part of the coating was found to be attached to the substrate surface irregularities and no single cracks were observed.