Saeed Hajimirzaee
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Title: Effect of surfactant on morphology, chemical properties and catalyst activity of hydroxyapatite
Biography
Biography: Saeed Hajimirzaee
Abstract
Hydroxyapatite (HAp) with chemical formula Ca5(PO4)3(OH) is a naturally occurring mineral form of calcium and phosphate has interesting properties such as flexible structure, superior ion-exchange capacity, acid-base properties and therefore it has been of considerable interest as biomaterials, adsorbents and even catalyst in last decays. HAp has been used in many catalytic reactions either as support or as active catalyst. As a support for prestigious metals, it has been used as efficient heterogeneous catalyst. HAp can be synthesised by different methods such as hydrothermal, precipitation, sol-gel or microemulsion, however synthesis of nano-particles with high surface area always has been a challenging process. Main problem with HAp synthesis is agglomeration of particles which in turn lead to synthesis of HAp with irregular shape and specific surface area less than 100 m2.g-1.It has been shown that optimising the wet process parameters can improve the particles size to synthesis HAp with surface area up to 150 m2.g-1. Alternatively, by using single surfactant or a mixture of surfactants, it is possible to increase the surface area of HAp, however, the effect of surfactant on chemical properties has not been studied. In this research, we investigate the effect of surfactant type on both morphology and chemical properties of synthesised HAp. Chemical activity of samples of HAP, which have been synthesised with different surfactants, are tested and compared in CO oxidation.