Microstructural and Mechanical Characterization of Sintered Hydroxyapatite Samples

Despite of the wide use of hydroxyapatite (HA) for bone repair and regeneration, its brittleness has limited clinical application to less stressed body parts. Thus, evaluation of HA mechanical properties has been an important research matter. The aim of this study is to assess the compressive strength of a stoichiometric HA with 1.66 Ca/P molar ratio, synthesized by hydrothermal method. Cylindrical samples were processed by uniaxial compacting, followed by sintering. Compressive strength of cylindrical samples with 2.0 medium diameter/height ratio was measured according to ASTM C 1424. Load to failure divided by the cross-sectional area of the samples were reported and microstructural characterization was made by MEV-EDS. The compression strength results were compared to values reported in the literature.