Peculiarities in sintering behavior of Ca-deficient hydroxyapatite nanopowders

Abstract We report unusual sintering behavior of Ca-deficient hydroxyapatite processed with different heating rates; particularly, faster heating resulted in higher densification. We hypothesize that faster heating delays formation of β-tricalcium phosphate which yields to unobstructed densification in intermediate sintering stage, allowing further tailoring of both microstructure and phase composition (hydroxyapatite/tricalcium phosphate).