This article is focused on the study of cooling rate effects on the thermal, structural, and microstructural properties of hydroxyapatite (HAp) obtained from bovine bone. A three-step process was used to obtain BIO-HAp: hydrothermal, calcinations, and cooling. Calcined samples in a furnace and cooling in air (HAp-CAir), water (HAp-CW), and liquid nitrogen (HAp-CN2), as well as an air cooled sample inside the furnace (HAp-CFAir), were studied. According to this study, the low cooling rate that was achieved for air cooled samples inside the furnace produce single crystal BIO-HAp with better crystalline quality; other samples exhibited polycrystalline structures forming micron and submicron grains.
Keywords: bio-hydroxyapatite; cooling rate; hydroxyapatite; structural properties of bone.
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