The effect of reaction medium and hydrothermal synthesis conditions on morphological parameters and thermal behavior of calcium phosphate nanoparticles

Abstract In this work, calcium phosphate nanoparticles were synthesized by a scalable hydrothermal method at significantly lower holding time, than was previously described in the literature. The morphological parameters of all the samples were characterized systematically by XRD, TEM, SSA, and FTIR. The lattice parameters and crystallite sizes are under discussion. It was shown that the surfactants and dopants greatly affect the nanoparticles formation process at all the stages – from the unit cell to crystallite size and nanoparticle sizes and shape. The possibility of NPs morphological parameters regulation via adding capping agents and dopants with different nature was demonstrated. Thermal properties of HAp and doped TCP nanoparticles are also reported. Results show that surfactant presence prevents sintering at high temperatures, in HAp case thermal stability depends on whether the nanoparticles are mono or polycrystalline, the presence of surfactant on the surface shifts the decomposition temperature to higher values.