Hydrothermal Time Effecting on the Morphology of Hydroxyapatite Templated by L-DOPA

Using Ca(NO3)2·4H2O, (NH4)2HPO4 and ammonia water as the starting raw materials and L-DOAP as template, hydroxyapatite (HAP) crystals were successfully prepared at 180 °C by changing the hydrothermal time. The HAP crystals were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The XRD patterns indicate that increasing hydrothermal time is helpful to improve the purity of the product and enhance crystallinity of HAP crystal. The FTIR analysis shows that the carbonate ions enter into the HAP crystal lattice and the final products are carbonate-containing hydroxyapatite. The FESEM images illustrate that HAP crystal morphology changed to flower-like hierarchical structures and grass blanket-like hierarchical structures when increasing the hydrothermal time to 1 h and 24 h. Therefore, hydrothermal time has a great influence on the morphology of HAP and the possible formation mechanism of HAP samples has been discussed.