Synthesis and characterization of strontium-doped hydroxyapatite for biomedical applications

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of strontium (Sr) doping into hydroxyapatite (HA) powders. It is well known that strontium promotes bone formation, reduces bone resorption and it is used to treat osteoporotic diseases as stated previously by researchers. Strontium-doped HA (Sr-HA) was produced by precipitation with increasing amount of ion exchange between calcium (Ca) and Sr. Two different Sr amounts as 2 and 4 mol% were doped into HA by adding Sr(NO3)(2) to the reaction solution. The precipitated HA was separated from supernatant after the vacuum filtration. The filtered wet cake of HA was exposed to spray drying and calcined in an air furnace at 1200 A degrees C. The produced-HA powders were analyzed by using SEM, FTIR, XRD and TG-DSC techniques. At the end of the study, the results showed that decomposition of HA to tri-calcium phosphate increases with increasing Sr content. Thermal analyses revealed that Sr-doped HA powders loose more mass than pure HA powders