Dear colleagues,
I am a researcher working with bovine hydroxyapatite. I want to reduce the percentage of carbonate on the sample. Is there any suggested techniques for this? I am measured the carbonate from EDX (SEM-EDX). Thank you
Thank you.
Dear Mrs. Gani,
Use monochloroacetic acid. It should destroy calcite but leaves apatite solid solution series minerals unaffected. I (geoscientist) use this chemical agent to destroy carbonates in rocks and mineral aggregates. HCl is much too aggressive and also destroys phosphate minerals of organic origin. Another method is the use of heavy liquids. I recommend sodium polytungstate which allows separation of silica, and Ca-Mg carbonate minerals from apatite. It is non-toxic unlike many other heavy liquids and does not need the installation of a ventilation hood.
I wish you much success
Kind regards
H.G.Dill
Dear Prof. Harald G. Dill
Thank you so much for your recommendation. That's mean a lot for me.
Sincerely,
Maria G.
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