Influence of DMSO-Sr on the Synthesis of Hydroxyapatite by Hydrothermal Coupled Microemulsion Method

Hydroxyapatite (denoted as HAP), which is chemically represented as Ca 10 (PO 4 ) 6 (OH) 2 ), is an extensively used biocompatible ceramic material for the regeneration of hard tissue because of its crystallographic and chemical similarities with natural bone. In this paper, we report the preparation of strontium (Sr) incorporated nano-HAP powder by hydrothermal coupled microemulsion (HT-ME) method employing DMSO as a primary surfactant. This paper discusses the effect of DMSO as well as Sr in the synthesis of HAP powders. Strontium stimulates the bone formation and prevention of bone resorption while dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) aids in the formation of improved morphological features and structure of nano-crystalline hydroxyapatite powders. FTIR, XRD, SEM and TGA techniques were performed to analyse the chemical composition, crystallite structure and uniform morphology. XRD results have shown the presence of hexagonal structure in HAP while the scanning electron microscopic technique reveals that DMSO assisted Sr-substituted hydroxyapatite powders are not agglomerated and the particle nanostructure is homogeneous. The synthesised powder is to be studied further for its biocompatibility. Graphic Abstract