Progress on the preparation of nanocrystalline apatites and surface characterization: Overview of fundamental and applied aspects

Publication date: March 2013 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials, Volume 59, Issue 1 Author(s): Jaime Gómez-Morales , Michele Iafisco , José Manuel Delgado-López , Stéphanie Sarda , Christophe Drouet Nanocrystalline calcium phosphate apatites constitute the main inorganic part of hard tissues, and a growing focus is devoted to prepare synthetic analogs, so-called “biomimetic”, able to precisely mimic the morphological and physico-chemical features of biological apatite compounds. Both from fundamental and applied viewpoints, an accurate characterization of nanocrystalline apatites, including their peculiar surface features, and a deep knowledge of crystallization aspects are prerequisites to attempt understanding mineralization phenomena in vivo as well as for designing innovative bioactive materials that may then find applications in bone tissue engineering, either as self-supported scaffolds and fillers or in the form of coatings, but also in other domains such as drug delivery or else medical imaging. Also, interfacial phenomena are of prime importance for getting a better insight of biomineralization and for following the behavior of biomaterials in or close to their final conditions of use. In this view, both adsorption and ion exchange represent essential processes involving the surface of apatite nanocrystals, possibly doped with foreign elements or functionalized with organic molecules of interest. In this review paper...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research