Precipitation of biomimetic fluorhydroxyapatite/polyacrylic acid nanostructures

Ordered structures of fluorhydroxyapatite (FHA) nanoparticles that resemble the nanostructure of natural human enamel have been prepared. Wet precipitation in the presence of polyacrylic acid (PAA) was used, and the particle morphology was altered by varying several reaction conditions. High molecular weight PAA increased particle length from around 54 nm to several hundred nanometres, while maintaining particle width at 15 nm. PAA concentration and the order of mixing the reactants also influenced crystal morphology. Optimum conditions produced dense, aligned bundles of highly elongated nanorods, which are very similar to the hierarchical nanostructure of human tooth enamel.