Pore Characteristics of Mesoporous Carbonated Hydroxyapatite Synthesised with Different Nonionic Surfactant and Carbonate Concentration

Abstract

Mesoporous carbonated hydroxypatite (CHA) is a promising drug delivery agent for disease treatment and could be a carrier for different types of drugs and antibiotics. It is still a challenge to introduce pores to carry drugs within the mesoporous CHA and obtain high surface area nanoparticles. This study investigates the effect of different types of nonionic surfactant and carbonate concentration on the pore characteristic of mesoporous CHA. Mesoporous CHA is synthesised through the coprecipitation technique using nonionic surfactants as pore templates i.e., P123 and F127 with different carbonate concentration. The axial view of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images shows the pores formed within the particles are distributed randomly, while the parallel view demonstrates that nanopore channels are developed within the CHA particles. Nitrogen adsorption analysis provides the surface area and Pore Size Distribution (PSD) of the nanoparticles. The PSD shows that CHA synthesis with P123 and F127 has similar pore size, around 28.9 nm, but different surface area. The results confirm the different types of surfactant templates has a positive effect on the pore characteristic, while carbonate precursor concentration does not significantly change surface area and pore size.