Transparent hydroxyapatite ceramics with nanograin structure prepared by high pressure spark plasma sintering at the minimized sintering temperature

A hydrothermally processed bulky powder composed of loosely aggregated nano-sized rods was consolidated by spark plasma sintering. The use of a high pressure cell allows the application of pressure up to 500 MPa. It was found that applying of high pressure is beneficial for widening up the kinetic window for attaining dense HAp nanoceramics. The high transparency of HAp nanoceramics obtained in this study is ascribed to the high density and homogeneous nano-grained structure achieved besides the unique intrinsic optical properties of the HAp crystal itself, i.e. its low refractive index and very small birefringence. Achieving full densification at the minimized sintering temperature allows for the first time the preparation of transparent HAp nanoceramics with stoichiometric composition, i.e. avoiding the loss of structural water that commonly takes place during the conventional ways of sintering. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.