Abstract:
Present paper reports the effect of dispersant loading on physical properties of porous aluminahydroxyapatite
(HA) composite bodies fabricated using protein foaming-consolidation method.
Hydrothermal derived HA powder was used as bioactive ceramic. Alumina and HA powders were mixed
with yolk, starch and darvan 821 A at an adjusted mass ratio to make slurry. The slurries were cast into
cylindrical shaped molds and then dried for foaming and consolidation process. Subsequently, the dried
bodies were burned at 600°C for 1 h, followed by sintering at temperatures of 1400°C for 2 h. The porous
alumina-HA composites with pore size in the range of 50-500 μm and densities of 2.23 – 2.83 g cm-3 were
obtained. Porosity of bodies decreased from 43.9 to 28.6% when dispersant amount increased from 0 to 7.0
g. The compressive strength of sintered bodies was found in the range of 20.3 to 104.8 MPa showing
depends on porosity.
