In the present paper, the effect of La2O3 (0.25, 0.5 and 1 wt.%) addition on
the phase stability, porosity, density, hardness, fracture toughness,
compressive strength and brittleness index of hydroxyapatite modified with 1
wt.% of MgO was investigated. Hydroxyapatite (HA) without additives sintered
at 1300?C has mixture of dominant hydroxyapatite phase with beta-tricalcium
phosphate (?-TCP), alpha-tricalcium phosphate (?-TCP) and calcium oxide
(CaO) phases. The microstructure is characterized with transgranular
microcracks and oversized grains. Although the density and hardness of the
pure HA increased with increasing temperature, a steady decrease in fracture
toughness (from 0.96 to 0.71MPa?m1/2) and compressive strength (from 130.2
to 65.6MPa) was observed. For the HA modified with 1 wt.% of MgO the highest
compressive strength (183.2MPa) and fracture toughness (1.47MPa?m1/2) were
obtained at 1200?C and at this temperature the brittleness index was 3.24
?m-1/2. Increase in the sintering temperature led to the increase of the
brittleness index of the pure HA,MgO modified HA and La2O3-MgO modified HA
samples. The addition of 1 wt.%La2O3 to 1 wt.% MgO-HA contributed to the
increase in the compressive strength of about 10%(from 183.2 to 202.0MPa),
fracture toughness of about 69% (from 1.37 to 2.32MPa?m1/2) and also
decrease of the brittleness index from 3.24 to 2.18 ?m-1/2. The best
performance after sintering at 1300?C was obtained for the MgO-HA sample
with 0.25wt.% La2O3. As a result of this study, a new candidate material for
biomedical application with superior mechanical properties and the phases
that do not cause adverse reactions in the human body could be 1 wt.% MgO-HA
modified with 1 wt.% La2O3 and sintered at 1200?C.