Abstract: Ultrafine powders of β-tricalcium (β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂, β-TCP) powders (about 100nm in average size) were obtained by the precipitation method. Transparent β-TCP bioceramics were fabricated by using these ultrafine powders and spark plasma sintering technique at 875℃ for 2min under 40MPa and at the heating rate of 150℃/min. No phases other than β-TCP were detected in the sintered samples. The relative density of the prepared β-TCP was over 99.7%. The results of the FESEM show that the transparent bodies have an average grain size of 250nm and seem to be pore-free. The MTT method shows that the proliferation of bone mesenchymal stem cells on transparent β-TCP bioceramics is much better than that on the polystyrene cell culture cluster.

Key words: nano, ultrafine powders, \beta-tricalcium phosphate, spark plasma sintering, transparent bioceramics