TY - JOUR AU - Purnendu, Parhi AU - Ramanan, A. AU - Ray, Alok R. PY - 2006 TI - Nanocrystalline Powders of Alkaline-Earth Phosphates as Precursors for Bioceramics JF - American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology VL - 2 IS - 2 DO - 10.3844/ajbbsp.2006.61.65 UR - https://thescipub.com/abstract/ajbbsp.2006.61.65 AB - Bone is a nanocomposite made of calcium phosphates and collagen. Collagen has a typical fibrous structure, with diameter ranging from 100 nm to 2 μm. It is suggested that calcium hydroxyapatite, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 in the size range 5-50 nm embedded in the collagen framework provides mechanical strength to bone. Among calcium phosphates, apatites are found to be the most suitable for bone regeneration due to its biocompatibility. A contemporary theme is to prepare nanocrystallites of alkaline-earth phosphates that can be employed as precursors for making novel bioceramics. In this paper, we present our attempts to prepare nano-sized particles of alkaline-earth hydroxyapatites, A10(PO4)6(OH)2 where A= Ca, Sr and Ba through a metathetical route. Our work involved the use of same reactants treated under different reaction conditions. While hydrothermal route yielded well-crystalline nanorods, microwave resulted in agglomerated hydroxyapatites and reverse micellear route gave low crystalline apatites with less agglomeration.