Continuous crystalline carbonate apatite thin films. A biomimetic approach.

In contrast to extensive studies on hydroxyapatite thin films, very little has been reported on the thin films of carbonated apatite (dahllite). In this report, we describe the synthesis and characterization of a highly crystalline dahllite thin film assembled via a biomimetic pathway. A free-standing continuous precursor film of carbonated calcium phosphate in an amorphous phase was first prepared by a solution-inhibited templating method (template-inhibition) at an air-water interface. A stearic acid surface monolayer acted as the template, while a carbonate-phosphate solution composed a binary inhibition system. The precursor film formed at the air/water interface was heated at 900 degrees C and transformed into a dense crystalline film that retained the overall shape of the precursor. The crystalline phase was characterized by XRD and IR to be a single-phase carbonate apatite, with carbonate substitutions in both type A (OH-) and type B (PO4(3-)) lattice positions.