In addition to designing catalytic materials ever more active and selective, the emergence of new classes of greener catalysts remains very challenging. The apatite family system with hydroxyapatite (HA) structure appears as a good candidate for catalysis due to its ecocompatibility properties, its sorption ability toward organic molecules, and its tunable composition resulting into modulation of its surface properties. Depending on their mode of preparation, these inexpensive and environment-friendly apatitic calcium phosphates exhibit properties of relevance to catalysis, such as large surface area and various morphologies.However, most studies focused so far on the catalytic performance of these compounds, while the study of structure-reactivity relationships required for rationalized optimization remains rather limited. This chapter aims at providing tools to help understand the catalytic behavior of apatite compounds, giving details about their structure, surface properties, and reactivity; this will include both stoichiometric and nonstoichiometric compounds, sometimes biomimetic and potentially substituted. A special attention is dedicated to recent advances in the characterization of their structural properties (bulk and surface/interphase) that have a strong impact on their reactivity, through both experimental and computational approaches to study the mechanisms occurring in the structure or at the crystals surface, as well as thermodynamic and dynamical properties. Remaining characterization challenges for apatite-based catalysts will also be discussed.
1.an influence on the charges carried by the cation and on the related strength of the Ca-O interaction [127], which results in different adsorption properties with guest molecules. To go further, quantum calculations coupled with NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) resultsshowed the impact of the presence of OHions on the migration of Ca 2+ as well as the rotation of PO4 3groups [128]. In the hydroxyapatite structure, phosphate ions PO4 3are the largest components of the structure. As such, they provide a primary backbone via 3D compact-like piling, generating interstitial sites for the other ions of the structure. Metal cations such as Ca 2+ occupy two types of crystallographic sites, denoted Ca1 (4 sites per unit formula) and Ca2 (6 sites per unit formula), see Figure 2. Ca1 sites are localized along the trigonal axis with the coordinates (1/4, 3/4, 1/2) and (3/4, 1/4, 1/2), forming linear columns along the c-axis. Ca2 sites in contrast form equilateral triangles at z = 1/4 and z = 3/4 on the sixfold screw (senary) 63 axes. Adjacent Ca1 and Ca2 sites are linked through shared oxygen atoms from PO4 tetrahedra. Ca1 sites generate (distorted) polyhedra where the metal ion is in ninefold coordination, while in Ca2 sites it is in sevenfold coordination.The Ca2 triangles contribute to delimit so-called "apatitic channels" where ions such as OHare axially located (Figure 3) [116,120]. In calcium hydroxyapatite, the Ca2 triangular sites correspond to the narrow...