Random stacking template of polymer spheres and water soluble particles to fabricate porous hydroxyapatite with interconnected pores

Particle stacking simulation is applied in the fabrication of porous hydroxyapatite (HA) ceramics to predict the relationship between the template preparation process and the porosity of porous ceramics. The stacking of multi-diameter spherical particles, such as polymer spheres and NaCl particles, in three-dimensional space is simulated by using continuous generation method. The porosity of porous HA is predicted by calculating the stacking density of large spheres (the ratio of large sphere volume and container volume). The model of three-dimensional random stacking spheres is implemented by using the C++ program. Porous HA ceramics with interconnected spherical pores were fabricated by slipcasting which the use of a polymer template. Templates were produced by randomly stacking polymer spheres and NaCl particles. The arithmetic average error between the porosity of porous HA ceramics and the stacking density of polymer spheres (large spheres) is 3.52%. Simulation results obtained by using the proposed method are consistent with the experimental results.