Abstract
The sintering behaviour and the resulting mechanical properties of a synthesised hydroxyapatite (HA) was investigated. The starting HA powder was manufactured using a wet chemical technique. The green samples were sintered at temperatures ranging from 1000oC to 1400oC with a dwell time of two hours. XRD analysis of the resulting sintered body indicate that the stability of the HA phase was not disrupted throughout the sintering regime employed. The Young′s modulus was found to increased linearly with bulk density. At the optimum sintering temperature of 1300oC where the material is composed of hydroxyapatite phase, the samples exhibited the highest bulk density of 3.11 Mgm-3 and possessed a maximum hardness value of 5.47 GPa and Young′s modulus of 115 GPa.
