Formation and characterization of bone-like nanoscale hydroxyapatite in glass bone cement

Glass based bone cement (GBC) was synthesized by mixing CaO-SiO2-P2O5 based glass powder with ammonium phosphate liquid medium. Bone-like hydroxyapatite (HAP, Ca-10(PO4)(6)(OH)(2)) was found to form after GBC was immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF). HAP crystal grew with an increasing time along c axle and reached about 200 nm in length after 30 days, however, the end plane granularity remained 30similar to50 rim. The chemical composition, crystal structure and morphology of HAP formed from GBC were proved to have great resemblance with living HAP. It is believed that GBC was a desirable biomedical material with high bioactivity. Furthermore, the high compressive strength guaranteed the possibility of GBC in clinical application.