Intrinsic factors of apatite influencing its amorphization during plasma-spray coating.

Hydroxyapatite coatings were prepared from differently treated starting powders to investigate the intrinsic factors of apatite influencing its amorphization during plasma-spray coating. The joint analyses of X-ray diffraction and infrared spectra show that the vacancies located on missing hydroxyl sites retard the amorphous/crystalline conversion and enforce retention of the amorphous component; the absorbed water molecules that pre-exist in the starting powder can be incorporated into the vacancies in the hydroxyapatite lattice during plasma-spray coating and compensate for the missing hydroxyls so as to promote the transformation of amorphous into crystalline apatite in the coating process. The more vacancies there are in the apatite structure due to missing hydroxyl sites, the more amorphous the component in the resultant coatings. Moreover, the amorphous phase formed in this way is stable in room conditions.