Effect of fuel characteristics on synthesis of calcium hydroxyapatite by solution combustion route

The effect of fuel characteristics on the processing of nano sized calcium hydroxyapatite (HA) fine powders by the solution combustion technique is reported. Urea, glycine and glucose were used as fuels in this study. By using different combinations of urea and glycine fuels and occasional addition of small amounts of highly water-soluble glucose, the flame temperature (T (f)) of the process as well as product characteristics could be controlled easily. The powders obtained by this modified solution combustion technique were characterized by XRD, FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, FESEM-EDX, particle size analyser (PSD) and specific surface area (SSA) measurements. The particle size of phase pure HA powder was found to be < 20 nm in this investigation. The effects of glucose addition with stoichiometric (A mu = 1) and fuel excess (A mu > 1) urea and glycine precursor batches were investigated separately.