Conductometric Study of the Effect of Citric Acid on Phase Evolution of Calcium Phosphate in Solutions

The influence of citric acid on phase evolution of calcium phosphate is studied by the electrical conductivity of reaction solutions. The conductance curves are divided into three distinct regions and assigned to the formation of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), hydroxyapatite (HA) and the solubility of HA, respectively. When more citric acid is added, the width of region I decreases because more Ca2+ ions would prefer to foster the nucleation of HA from ACP. Decreasing rate of conductivity in region II becomes smaller with more addition of citric acid because the supersaturation of HA decreases in solutions. And thus, HA powders with larger grain size are synthesized with more citric acid addition.