Development of biomineralization solutions to facilitate the transformation of brushite (CaHPO4·2H2O) into octacalcium phosphate (Ca8(HPO4)2(PO4)4·5H2O)

Brushite (DCPD, CaHPO
₄
·2H
₂
O, dicalcium phosphate dihydrate) and octacalcium phosphate (OCP, Ca
₈
(HPO
₄
)
₂
(PO
₄
)
₄
·5H
₂
O) are two important biomineralization phases of the musculoskeletal system of living vertebrates which respectively crystallize in the very first instants of hard tissue formation accompanied by calcification, and then transform into the so-called bone mineral named as calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA, Ca
_10-x
(HPO
₄
)
_x
(PO
₄
)
_6-x
(OH)
_2-x
). The utilization of these two phases in the surgical treatment of bone defects and voids has lately been the focus of interest of a significant number of research projects. Although the synthesis of DCPD is quite easy and reproducible, the same cannot be said for that of OCP. Biomineralization solutions which use DCPD as the starting material and can allow the economical transformation of DCPD into OCP have been developed in this study. This paper explains the preparation conditions of these solutions and elucidates the X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy data of the phases formed.