Fabrication of dispersible calcium phosphate nanocrystals via a modified Pechini method under non-stoichiometric conditions

Various techniques for preparing ceramic nanoparticles have been developed; however, most of them start from a preparation of precursor nanoparticles that are generally amorphous or in poorly crystallized phases. Thermal treatments used to obtain crystalline phases typically result in the sintering of the products into large polycrystals. In this study, we developed a process to fabricate dispersible hydroxyapatite (HAp; Ca₁₀(PO₄) ₆(OH)₂) nanocrystals via a modified Pechini method, which is a sol-gel like solid-state synthesis method for the preparation of multicomponent oxides. We demonstrated that the HAp nanocrystals sintered into large polycrystals ranging in size from several tens to several hundreds of microns via a conventional Pechini method using the stoichiometric Ca/P molar ratio of 1.67. When the Ca/P molar ratio in the precursor was > 1.67, a mixture of HAp nanocrystals and removable CaO matrix was obtained. The HAp nanocrystals were dispersed in aqueous media mostly in the form of nanoparticles when the amount of CaO matrix was sufficiently greater than the amount of HAp.