An Improvement in Sintering Property of β-Tricalcium Phosphate by Addition of Calcium Pyrophosphate and Calcium Carbonate

b-tricalcium phosphate(TCP, Ca3(PO4)2) ceramics are preferred as a bioceramics because of its chemical stability and reasonable degradation rate in vivo, but it is difficult to obtain b-TCP ceramics with high compressive strength at lower temperature than that of phase transition to a-TCP. In this study, the sintering behavior of TCP, Ca2P2O7-doped TCP, and CaCO3-doped TCP in the range of 2wt%~5wt% were investigated respectively. Phase transition of pure TCP took place between 1100℃ to 1150℃, and pure b-TCP ceramics could achieve a compressive strength of only 3MPa. However, calcium pyrophosphate (CPP, Ca2P2O7) additive prevented the transformation of b-TCP to a-TCP, but the second phase of CPP was observed in the resultant ceramics. Phase transition of TCP ceramics by addition of both CPP and calcium carbonate (CC, CaCO3) took place between 1200℃ to 1250℃ and the resultant TCP ceramics had few impurity of CPP. By adding CPP and CC to TCP, final ceramics with compressive strength over 12MPa could be obtained when sintered at 1200℃ for 2hrs.