Abstract

The TiO₂/Hydroxyapatite (TiO₂/HAp) nanocomposites with different ratios were prepared by precipitation of hydroxyapatite in the presence of TiO₂ or TiO(OH)₂. The physicochemical properties of TiO₂/HAp material were characterized using the batch equilibration method and BET, XPS, DRS, FTIR analyses. The XPS result showed that binding energy of Ca-P was 347.2eV, that of P-OH was 133.3eV and the Ti 2p spectrum could be resolved into two spin-orbit pairs 2p3/2 and 2p1/2 with binding energies of 458.6 and 464.1 eV, respectively, which are the characteristics of titanium(IV) in TiO₂. The FTIR result suggested that the formation of the TiO₂/HAp nanocomposites have not changed the structure nor the phase of the hydroxyapatite crystals. However, the physicochemical properties of TiO₂/HAp nanocomposites such as pHpzc values, band gap energy, specific surface area and pore volume were higher than those of pure TiO₂ and HAp.