Production and characterization of niobate apatite

Bioceramics are widely used as grafts for orthopedic and dental applications, as well as porous scaffolds for tissue engineering and bioactive coatings on metals. Because of its similarity with bone mineral composition and surface reactivity, synthetic hydroxyapatite (HAp) can be used as bone grafts and as drug delivery system. Substituted apatites have been researched and designed by changig structure, crystallinity and surface charge distribution of the material in order to optimize its performance in vivo. In the present work, a novel nanostructured hydroxyapatite partially substituted with niobium was obtained. The powders were synthesized by a patented aqueous precipitation method. The green powders showed an anomalous fibrous morphology, with wires and aggregates of nanoparticles, as observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). After heat treatment, the particle size was estimated to lay between 20nm and 40nm. The characterization of the material was performed by SEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy analyses. The element niobium was identified by XRF analyses of the produced powder, which was previously characterized by FTIR and XRD, as a single phase: HAp.