Preparation of low-crystalline apatite nanoparticles and their coating onto quartz substrates

We prepared low-crystalline apatite nanoparticles and coated them onto a surface of a Au/Cr-plated quartz substrate by the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method or by using a self-assembled monolayer of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (SAM method). Low-crystalline apatite nanoparticles around 10 nm in size with extremely low contents of undesirable residual products were obtained by adding (NH₄)₂HPO₄ aqueous droplets into a modified synthetic body fluid solution that contained Ca(CH₃COO) ₂. The apatite nanoparticles were successfully coated by either the EPD method or the SAM method; the nanoparticle coating achieved by the SAM method was more uniform than that achieved by the EPD method. The present SAM method is expected to be a promising technique for obtaining a quartz substrate coated with apatite nanoparticles, which can be used as a quartz crystal microbalance device.