Fabrication of interconnected porous Ag substituted octacalcium phosphate blocks based on a dissolution-precipitation reaction

Abstract

Abstract Here, we introduce Ag substituted octacalcium phosphate (OCP-Ag) blocks with interconnected porous structure and sufficient mechanical strength as bone substitute (i.e., foam). We employed a two-step process for fabrication, which includes a setting reaction for acidic calcium phosphate granules using an acidic phosphate solution and a phase conversion process via dissolution-precipitation method in cocktail ((NH4)2HPO4-NH4NO3-NaNO3-AgNO3) solutions. The Ag contents in the fabricated OCP-Ag foams were 0.08–0.15 at%, which were sufficient in exhibiting contact antibacterial ability. The mechanical strength and porosity of the OCP-Ag foams were about 0.5 MPa and 70%, respectively. These values were sufficient for the application of the OCP-Ag foams as bone substitute. Graphical abstract