Porous glass reinforced hydroxyapatite materials produced with different organic additives

In the present study three different organic additives were used to produce porous structures of a CaO-P2O5 glass reinforced hydroxyapatite potato starch, almond crust and wax spheres. The produced samples were analysed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction with Rietveld refinement, differential thermal analysis and mercury porosimetry. The techniques used in this study enabled the production of glass reinforced hydroxyapatite samples with various pore diameters. Two different techniques were used to produce porous glass reinforced hydroxyapatite samples: a dry method using wax spheres as pore formers and a wet method in alcoholic suspension, where almond crust and potato starch were used as pore formers. The final microstructure consists of hydroxyapatite, alpha-tricalcium phosphate and beta-tricalcium phosphate. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed different percentages of phases when comparing dense and porous glass reinforced hydroxyapatite specimens, These hard materials are intended to be used as bone defect fillers. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.