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.