Rod-like micelle templated synthesis of porous hydroxyapatite

Use of macromolecular templates for controlling nanostructures of inorganic materials is an active area of research. In particular, oriented growth of hydroxyapatite in organic matrix is of great relevance to understand biomineralisation of bone and its potential biomedical applications. Natural bone being a composite of hydroxyapatite and collagen fibers, crystallization of hydroxyapatite in fibrous assemblies could mimic such biomineralisation. This motivated us to investigate the role of long rod-like micelles in modulating the structure of hydroxyapatite particles. In this article, we report the preparation of porous hydroxyapatite nanorods using rod-like micelles made up of a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and anionic hydrotrope sodium salicylate (SS) as a templating agent. The successful formation of hydroxyapatite crystals is evident from XRD, FTIR, TGA, SEM and TEM analyses. It has been observed that large hydroxyapatite nanorods of diameter ～50 nm are formed in surfactant mediated synthesis, whereas irregular shaped nanoaggregates of hydroxyapatite are obtained in the absence of surfactant. A comparative study on the porosity of hydroxyapatite clearly shows that monomodal distribution of mesopores with a peak at ～30 nm in the absence of surfactant while bimodal distribution of mesopores having maxima at ～4 nm and ～45 nm appear in hydroxyapatite prepared in the presence of surfactant template.