Synthesis of calcium orthophosphates by chemical precipitation: re-evaluation of the solubility products of hydroxyapatites

For the first time, a linear correlation was found between the specific solubility products of calcium orthophosphates and their molar ratio Ca/P (the correlation coefficient being R2=0.9742). Nevertheless, the values of solubility products of tricalcium phosphate (pKS=26–29), hydroxyapatite (pKS=116.8) and its Ca-deficient forms (pKS~85) cannot be correlated. We proposed to adjust these values of solubility products in accordance with the obtained correlation dependence as follows: pKS is 40, 155 and 114–155 for tricalcium phosphate, hydroxyapatite and Ca-deficient hydroxyapatite, respectively. The calculated solubility diagrams (isotherms) with adjusted solubility products agree reasonably well with the known experimental data, which could not be explained and were not accepted by the scientific community up to the present day. Based on well-known ideas of chemical thermodynamics, we suggested an explanation of the correlation between the specific solubility products of calcium orthophosphates and their molar ratios Ca/P. The developed model of dissolution process is based on a comparison between crystal lattice energy and hydration energy of calcium ions. The experiments on chemical precipitation of orthophosphates were performed at pH 4–10 and at a constant molar ratio Ca/P=1.5; their results showed that only one single metastable form, calcium hydrogen phosphate, is precipitated within the entire pH range at the temperature of 200С. The obtained sediments were isothermally exposed at the temperature of 2500С in a mother solution for 6 hours; such a treatment resulted in a full dehydration of calcium hydrogen phosphate and its partial transformation into a more stable form (hydroxyapatite). The mass fraction of hydroxyapatite increases from 14% to 70% and the degree of crystallinity decreases from 20% to 5% with increasing the value of solution pH. It was concluded that the rate of phase transition from CaHPO4 to Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 in influenced by the concentration of hydroxide ions that are incorporated into a crystal lattice of hydroxyapatite.