Bone Abstracts

Two kinds of apatite powder were prepared separately from bovine bones originated from different geographical and ecological areas with different climates, in order to characterize and compare their components, hardness and structures by burning them and heat treating the bone ashes at 850 °C in an air furnace. The black ashes were converted to white and yellow–white powders. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicate that the white powder was carbonate–hydroxyapatite and the yellow white powder was fluorapatite. Neither of the samples contained any organic components of bone. X-ray analysis revealed that calcium and phosphorous were the main elements for both powders and sodium and fluoride were presented as minor impurities in fluorapatite powder.

Furthermore, the micro-hardness tests on both types of bone revealed that the bone which was composed of fluorapatite was about twice harder than the bone which was composed of carbonate-hydroxyapatite. Fluoride and sodium in the former cause more symmetric, dense and as a result harder structure.