Hydroxyapatite (HAp) powders with different crystallinities were synthesized at various calcination temperatures through the co-precipitation of Ca(OH)2 and H3PO4. The degradation behavior of these HAp powders with different crystallinities was assessed in a simulated body fluid solution (SBF) for 8 weeks. Below 800˚C, the powders were nonstochiometric HAp, and the single HAp phase was successfully synthesized at 800˚C. The degree of crystallinity of the HAp powders increased with an increasing calcination temperature and varied in a range from 39.6% to 92.5%. In the low crystallinity HAp powders, the Ca and P ion concentrations of the SBF solution increased with an increasing soaking time, which indicated that the low crystallinity HAp degraded in the SBF solution. The mass of the HAp powders linearly decreased with respect to the soaking time, and the mass loss was higher at lower crystallinities. The mass loss ranged from 0.8% to 13.2% after 8 weeks. The crystallinity of the HAp powders increased with an increasing soaking time up to 4 weeks and then decreased because of HAp degradation. The pH of the SBF solution did not change much throughout the course of these experiments. These results suggested that the crystallinity of HAp can be used to control the degradation.

Porous poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds were fabricated by salt leaching method. The PCL scaffolds were treated with aqueous NaOH for 0h, 2h, 4h, 8h, and 12h at 40˚C. The NaOH-treated PCL scaffolds were dipped in CaCl2 and K2HPO4·3H2O solution alternately three times to induce apatite nuclei onto the surface of the scaffolds. The NaOH-treated PCL scaffolds were immersed into SBF solution for 1day to grow the apatite. The apatite formation were investigated as a fuction of NaOH treatment time. The hydrophilicty and surface area of the PCL scaffolds were increased with NaOH-treatment time. The NaOH-treated PCL scaffolds were successfully formed a dense and uniform bone-like apatite layer after immersion for 1 day in SBF solution.

The microstructural and mechanical properties of Al-Si alloyed powder, prepared by gas atomization fallowed by hot extrusion, were studied by optical and scanning electron microscopies, hardness and wear testing. The gas atomized Al-Si alloy powder exhibited uniformly dispersed Si particles with particle size ranging from 5 to . The hot extruded Al-Si alloy shows the average Si particle size of less than . After heat-treatment, the average particle size was increased from 2 to . Also, mechanical properties of extruded Al-Si alloy powder were analyzed before and after heat-treatment. As expected from the microstructural analysis, the heat-treated samples resulted in a decrease in the hardness and wear resistance due to Si particle growth. The friction coefficient of heat-treated Al-Si alloyed powder showed higher value tough all sliding speed. This behavior would be due to abrasive wear mechanism. As sliding speed increases, friction coefficient and depth and width of wear track increase. No significant changes occurred in the wear track shape with increased sliding speed.

Wear behaviors of gas atomized and extruded Al-Si alloys were investigated using the dry sliding wear apparatus. The wear tests were conducted on Al-Si alloy discs against cast iron pins and vice versa at constant load of 10N with different sliding speed of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5m/s. In the case of Al-Si alloy discs slid against the cast iron pins, the wear rate slightly increased with increasing the sliding speed due to the abrasive wear occurred between Al-Si alloy discs and cast iron pins. Conversely, in the case of cast iron discs against Al-Si alloy pins, the wear rate decreased with increasing the sliding speed up to 0.3m/s. However, the wear rate increased with increasing the sliding speed from 0.3m/s to 0.5m/s. It could be due to adhesive wear behavior and abrasive wear behavior_between cast iron discs and Al-Si alloy pins.