The increasing interest of apatite-based material is due to its chemical structural similarity with human bone and teeth. It is a promising biomaterial which can be used to repair or replace human hard tissues.
This research mainly focuses on structural determination of the properties of apatitic biomaterials. A variety of carefully designed apatites including F-,CO32-,and Sr2+ substitutions had been synthesized and characterized by NMR, XRD, and FTIR. Comprehensive results have been interpreted by
using a combination of both XRD Rietveld and DMfit NMR linefit deconvolution analysis. We have successfully proposed a mechanism of F-substitution process in apatite structure and evaluated the fluoridation level of apatite solid solution using 19F static and Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy. This work had been accepted to RSC Advances journal. Further research on Sr-apatite has discovered the different influence of the Sr ions on fluorapatite and hydroxyapatite. The study on
CO3-apatite suggests CO3 substitution may have “vacancy left effect ”.The results of our project will help to understand how the different anion and cation substitutions modify the apatite lattice, and what the role of the heat treatment temperature has on apatite structure modification. The study
of the relationship between structure and properties will be beneficial for the design of innovative biomaterials, in implantable medical devices fabrication, coating, and drug delivery applications.