Effect of various fuels used in combustion synthesis on the bioactivity of akermanite

Abstract Significant interest has been inspired by the exceptional biological performance of akermanite bioceramic in tissue engineering. This exertion investigates effect of fuel on the biomineralisation using three different fuels viz., glycine, L-alanine, and urea. The materials were prepared through sol-gel combustion method by using Glycine, L Alanine and Urea as a fuel and encoded as AK-G, AK-AL, and AK-U. The mechanism associated in the synthesis of these bioceramic was examined by thermal analysis. The pure phase achieved at 900 °C was confirmed by powder XRD, the functional groups were identified by FTIR analysis. When glycine was employed as the fuel, the average crystallite size formed was 32–36 nm; however, for alanine and urea, shows increase in value of 34–40 and 37–43 nm, respectively. Surface morphology and elemental composition were confirmed by SEM/EDX. AFM analysis indicates that Glycine imparts higher surface roughness than other ceramic materials, which promotes nucleation of hydroxyapatite during biomineralization. Among the three samples, AK-Glycine exhibits considerable improvements in bioactivity with a Ca/P ratio of 1.60 which is closer to natural hydroxyapatite (1.67) and makes it an appropriate candidate for bone tissue engineering applications.