Apatite formation on organic monolayers in simulated body environment.

Organic monolayer films with the same functional groups as collagen were prepared by a Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method and the LB monolayers were soaked in a simulated body fluid. Nucleation of hydroxyapatite (HA) took place on the monolayers of the carboxyl group, while no nucleation occurred on the monolayers of amino groups. From IR spectra analyses it was found that an interfacial interaction between carboxyl groups and Ca ions was important for the HA nucleation, causing the formation of HA crystals from the simulated body environment. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.