The effect of sintering conditions on the formation of hydroxyapatite-boron nitride nanocomposites

Being the main inorganic constitution of hard tissues (bone and teeth),calcium phosphates has been applied in medical and dental applications in hard tissue repair. Hydroxyapatite (HAp) ceramics have attracted attention because of their excellent osteoconductive and bioactive properties. In spite of having sufficient biocompatibility, HAp cannot perform the expected mechanical properties of a hard tissue. It is considered that, the production of composites by adding a variety of materials to nHAp would improve mechanical properties and by controlling important parameters such as particle size and shape, particle distribution and agglomeration also affect the mechanical properties. Accordingly, nano-sized hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) having different compositional percentages was added to the nHAp to form novel composites with expected properties and the effect of sintering process on microstructure and morphological properties of sintered composites were investigated. For the structural characterization, XRD, Raman Spectroscopy and EDS were used, and for the identification of morphology and surface features, TEM, SEM and FIB and AFM techniques were utilized.