Abstract
Hydroxyapatite (HAP, Ca10 (PO4) 6 (OH) 2), is an important mineral component of hard tissues such as teeth and bones. Therefore, when used in an implanted artificial hard tissue, HAP is expected to show a high affinity for natural hard tissue in situ. However, the bioconvertibility of HAP is affected by the physicochemical properties such as crystallinity, specific surface area, impurities, adsorption and dissolution, depending on the method of synthesis. In this review, the relations between the various kinds of synthesis for HAP and the physicochemical properties are discussed to provide basic information for using biomaterials, and the several application studies about HAP are introduced.
