Phase development and structural characterization of calcium phosphate ceramics-polyacrylic acid nanocomposites at room temperature in water-methanol mixtures

Calcium phosphate ceramics (CPCs) were prepared via an in-situ formation in the presence of polyacrylic acid (PAA) polymer under water-methanol (WM) mixture at room temperature. The PAA polymer was employed as both structure-directing agent and crystallization retardant to manipulate the development of resulting CPCs nano-crystallites which are observed to show a core-shell configuration with a thin layer of PAA molecules. A resulting phase evolution map with respect to the developing phases of calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA), β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP), and an intermediate amorphous calcium phoshate (ACP) that were structurally and spectroscopically identified, was constructed in terms of fractions of water-to-methanol proportions and concentration of PAA. It is found that for the solutions in both water-rich and methanol-rich regions, pure CDHA and β-TCP instead of intermediate ACP phase can be developed irrespective of the concentration of PAA, respectively. For conditions in between, i.e., with methanol fractions of 15%-90%, ACP appeared only when the PAA fell in a limited concentration range.