Nanometer hydroxyapatite (n-HA) powders were synthesized by the chemical precipitation method, and a novel ZnO/HA composite, which consisted of second-phase particles with different sizes and distributions, was successfully fabricated. ZnO/HA composites were prepared by using powder sintering with different Zn contents and a prefabrication pressure of 150 MPa. Microstructure and local chemical composition were analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS), respectively. The phase composition and distribution of the composite were determined with electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) and an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), respectively. The experimental results of the XRD showed that the chemical precipitation method was a simple and efficient method to obtain high-purity n-HA powders. When the sintering temperature was lower than 1250 °C, the thermal stability of HA was not affected by the Zn in the sintering process. Due to sintering in an air atmosphere, the oxidation reaction of Zn took place in three stages, and ZnO as the second phase had two different sizes and distributions in the composites. The compressive strength of ZnO/HA composites, of which the highest was up to 332 MPa when the Zn content was 20%, was significantly improved compared with pure HA. The improvement in mechanical properties was mainly due to the distribution of fine ZnO particles among HA grains, which hindered the HA grain boundary migration and refinement of HA grains. As grain refinement increased the area of the grain boundary inside the material, both the grain boundary and second phase hindered crack development in different ways.
Keywords: ZnO/HA composite; compression strength; grain growth; powder sintering.