Abstract

Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles were synthesized, using a wet chemical technique with diammonium hydrogen phosphate and calcium nitrate tetrahydrate precursors, respectively. The pH of the system was maintained at 10.8 throughout the stirring process, by using 0.1 M sodium hydroxide. The mixture was allowed to remain stirred overnight and a white precipitate was formed. The precipitate was vacuum dried and cleaned with distilled water and ethanol simultaneously three or four times. The prepared powder was used for further characterization. The prepared nano-hydroxyapatite powder was characterized for phase composition, using X-ray diffractometry; elemental dispersive X-ray and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The elemental compositions of the nano-hydroxyapatite were analyzed and confirmed by elemental dispersive X-ray (EDX). The particle size and morphology were studied using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The particle size of the nano-hydroxyapatite was also analyzed, using the dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiment.

Key words: Hydroxyapatite, wet chemical, elemental dispersive X-ray (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM).