Synthesis and Investigation of Hydroxyapatite-Silver Nanocomposite Powder Phases Transformation

In this study, hydroxyapatite (HA) nanocomposite powder with 0, 4 and 8 wt.% silver were synthesized via sol-gel method. Phase formation, thermal stability, microstructure and particle size distribution were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and EDS mapping. Results showed presence of silver as a reinforcement phase caused a decrease in thermal stability of HA phase and decomposition of HA to β-TCP phase was increased. The microstructure characterization revealed that silver particles until 4 wt.% uniformly distributed in HA matrix and the particles were in nano-sized.