TiO2-HA composites obtained by combination of sol–gel synthesis and a supercritical CO2 drying process

Abstract

An effective method for the synthesis of TiO2–HA composite materials by sol–gel followed by carbon dioxide supercritical drying, is presented. The influence of the amount of hydroxyapatite (HA) in the dioxide of titanium (TiO2) matrix on the crystalline structure and microstructure development of the composites is discussed. Rheological measurements were carried out in order to compare gelation times of precursors with low, medium, and high HA contents. Composites were analyzed by XRD, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and SEM techniques. The results indicated that the proposed synthesis method leads to TiO2 anatase matrices with dispersed HA nanoparticles up to 30% approximately with gelation times of about 5 min.