Characterization Techniques for Hydroxyapatite Deposited by Plasma Spray on Hip Prosthesis

Abstract

As part of a characterization research on hydroxyapatite (HAp) plasma deposits for hip prosthesis, crystallinity and residual stresses weredetemiined at the interface Hap'TA6V. A traditional method employed by several laboratories is based on X-ray diffraction by a powder mixture of the investigated HAp sample with a standard of crystallinity Al₂O₃ Four new methods were investigated for determining the crystallinity of HAp sample, two of which are based on x-ray diffraction, one on neutron diffraction and one on the infrared absorption spectrometry. Whereas the three techniques require the use of powders, the neutron technique can be applied also to the intact HAp deposits. All four methods provide reasonable results, not very different one from each other, with a greater accuracy than for the x-ray and IR methods.