Processing of natural resourced hydroxyapatite ceramics from fish scale

Abstract

The present study illustrates the processing parameter associated with the preparation of natural resourced ultrafine hydroxyapatite powders in a cost effective way through thermal decomposition of chemically treated fish scale. The optimisation of processing calcification temperature of HAp powder was identified through thermal gravimetric analysis and corresponding X-ray diffraction studies. The optimised calcined hydroxyapatite powder derived from fish scale was wet ball milled for several hours and compacted into different shapes at lower pressure (850 kg cm⁻²). The green compacts were sintered at different temperature for 1 h in dry air atmosphere. The average grain sizes of sintered samples remain mostly in the submicrometre range and ∼91% of theoretical density was achieved even at lower compacting pressure.