Development of spray dried silver-copper co-doped β-tricalcium phosphate particles

Abstract Β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) is preferred among of the calcium phosphate family member owing to its resorbility for bone related implant materials. In addition to this feature, antibacterial and low cytotoxicity attributes are necessary to mitigate the risk of infection caused by bacteria and minimize the rejection rate from the body. Silver (Ag) and Copper (Cu) are two metals that have been extensively utilized since ancient times to suppress microbial growth. β-TCP powders with dopant of the Ag, Cu and Ag/Cu co-doped were prepared with spray pyrolysis (SP). A series of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to analyze the crystalline phase, morphology, and elemental composition of un-doped, Ag-doped, Cu-doped and Ag/Cu co-doped β-TCP samples. From the results showed, all prepared powders have a spherical shape with metals distributed homogenously on the β-TCP. This confirms the effective synthesis of dopant Ag and Cu to β-TCP by the SP method. Furthermore, at lower concentrations, the antibacterial efficacy of 2.9 mol% Ag/2.9 mol% Cu co-doped β-TC is equal to 5.8% mol Ag-doped and demonstrated higher cell viability, indicating a favorable influence of the co-doping technique on improving the bioactivity of β-TCP.