Highly porous hydroxyapatite bioceramics with interconnected pore channels using camphene-based freeze casting

We fabricated highly porous hydroxyapatite (HA) bioceramics using the camphene-based freeze casting method. In this method, HA/camphene slurries with various HA contents (10, 15, and 20 vol.%) were prepared by ball-milling at 60 degrees C and then cast into a mold at room-temperature. This method allowed the fabricated sample to have completely interconnected pore channels by removing the frozen camphene network via sublimation and dense HA walls by sintering the highly packed HA powder networks at 1250 degrees C for 3 h. As the initial HA content was increased from 10 to 20 vol.%, the porosity decreased from 75 to 56%, while the compressive strength remarkably increased from 0.94 to 17 MPa. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.