Preparation of silver/hydroxyapatite nanoparticles using hydroxyapatite nanoparticles with different calcination temperatures

In this Letter, silver/hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nano-Ag/HA) were fabricated by depositing silver nanoparticles (nano-Ag) onto the surfaces of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nano-HA) using glucose as the reducing agent. The X-ray diffraction result shows that the deposition is pure nano-Ag. The transmission electron microscopy result confirms that the mean size of prepared nano-Ag decreased when decreasing the calcination temperature of nano-HA. The mean size of nano-Ag is about 4 nm whereas the maximal size of nano-Ag is about 7 nm when the calcination temperature of nano-HA is 450 C and the stabilising agent is soluble starch or polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP). Moreover, the mean size of nano-Ag fabricated using soluble starch as the stabiliser was smaller than the one gained using PVP as the stabilising agent and the size distribution of the former is narrower than the one of the latter, whereas the nano-Ag/HA fabricated with polyvinyl acetate or polyethylene glycolhad a bigger mean size and broader size distribution.