Effect of fluorine content on mechanical properties of sintered fluoridated hydroxyapatite

The effect of fluorine content, preparing method, and sintering temperature on both the bulk density and biaxial flexural strength of sintered fluoridated hydroxyapatite (FHA) was studied. Both uniaxially pressed un-milled (UPU) and cold isostatically pressed milled (IPM) FHA discs were sintered at temperatures between 1200～1400 °C at an interval of 100 °C. It was found that the fluorine content had significant impact on the sintering behavior, densification, and mechanical properties of FHA discs. At a low fluorine content, the specimens decomposed between 1200–1400 °C, which resulted in a relatively low sintered density and biaxial flexural strength of the specimens. In comparison, the specimens with high fluorine content did not decompose even at the sintering temperature of 1400 °C. The sintered density and biaxial flexural strength of these specimens increased with the sintering temperature. The maximum sintered density and biaxial flexural strength of the UPU specimens were only 85% of the theoretical density and 45 MPa, respectively. In contrast, much higher sintered density (～95% of the theoretical density) and mechanical strength (～100 MPa) were attained for the specimens subjected to the cold isostatic pressing and ball milling. A close correlation between the sintered density and biaxial flexural strength of the specimens was revealed, where the biaxial flexural strength increased exponentially with the sintered density.