Abstract
Nanophase hydroxyapatite (HA) is finding applications in many areas of biomedical research, including bone tissue engineering, drug delivery, and intracellular imaging. Details in chemical composition, crystal phase makeup, size, and shape of HA nanoparticles play important roles in achieving the favorable biological responses required in these applications. Most of the nanophase HA synthesis techniques involve solution-based methods that exhibit substantial aggregation of particles upon precipitation. Typically these methods also have limited control over the particle size and crystal phase composition. In this study, we describe the gas-phase synthesis of aggregation-free, size-controlled HA nanoparticles with mean size in the 20–70 nm range using laser ablation followed by aerosol electrical mobility classification. Nanoparticle deposits with adjustable number concentration were obtained on solid substrates. Particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Samples are well represented by log-normal size distributions with geometric standard deviation σ g ≈ 1.2. The most suitable conditions for HA nanoparticle formation at a laser fluence of 5 J/cm2 were found to be a temperature of 800 °C and a partial pressure of water of 160 mbar.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the BioMatrix Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS)/Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory (LNBio) under proposal D12A-XRD1-9943. Authors are thankful to Prof. Daniel Zanetti de Florio, Eduardo Souza Santos, and Pedro Ivo Braun Ferreira for assistance during experiments at LNLS, to Dr. Saulius Drukteinis for assembling the system to control the partial pressure of water, and to Justin T. Marbutt for processing of the AFM data. R. K. acknowledges support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-Alabama Space Grant Consortium-Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at UAB (Award No. NNG05GE80H).
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Bapat, P.V., Kraft, R. & Camata, R.P. Gas-phase laser synthesis of aggregation-free, size-controlled hydroxyapatite nanoparticles. J Nanopart Res 14, 1163 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1163-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1163-3