Effect of Fabrication Processes on the Antimicrobial Properties of Silver Doped Nano-Sized HAp

Abstract

Abstract. In fabrication of antimicrobial hydroxyapatite (HAp) doped with silver, the influences of particle size and drying route were investigated and discussed in relation with silver contents. Stronger antibiotics require as much silver as possible to be doped in HAp. In the introduction of silver ion through ion-exchange process, there were two critical experimental steps for the increase of silver content. By eliminating the supernatant solution through sublimation route, the formation of agglomerates was minimized. And fine nano-particles were obtained by rapid stirring during precipitation. These two steps contributed to the great surface area of HAp and as a result, 4.87 % of silver was introduced. The corresponding antimicrobial properties were also found to be the strongest in this work.