doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2005.03.247
Copyright © 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Preparation of dense β-CaSiO3 ceramic with high mechanical strength and HAp formation ability in simulated body fluid
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L.H. Longa, c, L.D. Chena,
,
, S.Q. Baia, J. Changb and K.L. Linb
aState Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China
bBiomaterials and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China
cGraduate School of Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Received 29 October 2004;
revised 1 March 2005;
accepted 12 March 2005.
Available online 31 May 2005.
Abstract
In present study, dense CaSiO3 (CS) ceramics have been fabricated through spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique using β-CS powder prepared by chemical precipitation method. The β-CS ceramic sintered at 950 °C has a relative density of about 95% and shows a fine microstructure with an average grain size of 0.6 μm, thus expresses good bending strength of about 294 MPa. The simulated body fluid (SBF) immersion tests show that the dense β-CS ceramic has a high hydroxyapatite (HAp) formation rate on its surface. The HAp layer formed on the CS ceramic surface has a granular structure consisting of silkworm-like HAp grains, and the thickness of HAp and Si-rich layer are 70 and 120 μm, respectively.
Keywords: Powders-chemical preparation; Grain size; Mechanical properties; Biomedical applications; Spark plasma sintering; Apatite; CaSiO3
Fig. 1. Schematic drawing illustrating the features of an SPS apparatus.
Fig. 2. XRD patterns of β-CaSiO3 powder and ceramics sintered at different temperatures.
Fig. 3. SEM photographs of fracture and thermally etched surface of β-CaSiO3 SPS-sintered at various temperatures, (a) 900, (b) 950, (c) 970 and (d) 950 °C thermally etched surface.
Fig. 4. XRD patterns of the β-CaSiO3 ceramics soaked in SBF solution for various periods.
Fig. 5. Surface SEM photographs of β-CaSiO3 ceramics soaked in SBF solution for various periods.
Fig. 6. SEM images and element distribution in EPMA line-scanning analysis of the polished cross-section of β-CaSiO3 ceramics soaked in SBF for 3 days (a) and 7 days (b).
Table 1.
Ion concentration of SBF in comparison with human blood plasma

Table 2.
The measured density and mechanical properties of the obtained materials

Table 3.
The Ca/P molar ratio of the obtained materials soaked in SBF solution for various periods


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