Investigation of the Effect of Starch Addition on Protein Foaming- Consolidation Porous Alumina Containing Hydroxyapatite Nanopowder

Abstract

The object of this study was to produce porous alumina-hydroxyapatite (HA) composite bodies via protein foaming-consolidation method. Egg yolk was used as a pore creating agent. 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 temperature of 1400°C for 2 h. The starch addition was selected as the variable factor. The density of porous bodies increased from 2.40 to 2.81 g cm-3 when starch amount increased from 1.0 to 3.0 g. The compressive strength was found 18.0 MPa at 38.3% porosity and it increased to 102.3 at 29.1% porosity. The pores of 50-600 μm size illustrating the rough enough internal surfaces, were obtained for potential use in hard tissue engineering.