Abstract
Mixed calcium-copper hydroxyapatite (Ca-CuHAp), with general formula Ca(10-x)Cux(PO4)(6)(OH)(2), where 0 <= x <= 0.75 was prepared in aqueous medium in the presence of different concentrations of poly-laspartic acid (PASP). XRD, IR, TG-DTA, TEM-EDX, AFM and chemical analyses were used to characterize the structure, morphology and composition of the products. All techniques show the formation of new hybrid compounds Ca-CuHAp-PASP. The presence of the grafting moiety on the apatitic material is more significant with increasing of copper amount and/or organic concentration in the starting solution. These increases lead to the affectation of apatite crystallinity. The IR spectroscopy shows the conservation of (P-OH) band of (HPO4)(2-) groups, suggesting that PASP acid was interacted only with metallic cations of hydroxyapatite. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.