Hydrophosphate cements

Interesting attempts have been made to formulate water-setting cements by blending solid acid phosphates with the zinc oxide powder. The cement is then prepared by mixing this powder blend with water. These attempts may be considered to have failed. 

Nakazawa et al. (1965) used calcium or magnesium dihydrogen phosphate as the acid phosphate. The powders were hygroscopic. The magnesium salt yielded cements which showed excessive contraction on setting and were weak and prone to aqueous attack. The calcium salt was somewhat better. 

A more successful approach was that of Higashi et al. (1969a,b 1972). They blended solid add phosphate salts with zinc oxide powder. One add salt used was a predpitated hydrate of ZnH2P04. The cement was formed by mixing this powder blend with water. Work progressed to the point where three commercial brands of these so-called hydrophosphate cements appeared on the market. None met the spedfication requirements 

There is virtually no knowledge of the setting and stmcture of copper phosphate cements. Mostly, they are complex materials. The simplest was based on a powder containing 91-5% CuO and 8-4% CO3O4. Others contained respectively 62-2 % CuO and 29-8 % ZnO, and 23-9 % Cu O and 66 7% ZnO, with other metal oxides. The strength of these cements is about the same as the zinc phosphate cement (Ware, 1971). There are also pseudo-copper cements, which are zinc phosphate cements coloured by minor amounts of copper(II) oxide. 

Vashkevitch Sychev (1982) have identified the main reaction product of the cement-forming reaction between copper(II) oxide and phosphoric acid as Cu3(P04)2. SHjO. The addition of polymers - poly(vinyl acetate) and latex - was found to inhibit the reaction and to reduce the compressive strength of these cements. However, impact strength and water resistance were improved. 

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Wisth, P. J. (1972). The ability of zinc phosphate and hydrophosphate cements to seal space bands. Angle Orthodontics, 42, 395-8. 

Other silicophosphate cements that use cation-releasing silicates are based on wolla-stonite [33], and serpentinite [34,35]. Naturally occurring phosphate cements have also been known [36]. In these cements, silicates are sparsely soluble and release cations (Ca, and Mg ), which react with the phosphate anions to form hydrophosphates and eventually convert to phosphates. This process is similar to that involving zinc phosphate cements, in which hydrophosphates form first, then convert to phosphates during aging. 

Calcium oxide is the main ingredient in conventional portland cements. Since limestone is the most abundant mineral in nature, it has been easy to produce portland cement at a low cost. The high solubility of calcium oxide makes it difficult to produce phosphate-based cements. However, calcium oxide can be converted to compounds such as silicates, aluminates, or even hydrophosphates, which then can be used in an acid-base reaction with phosphate, forming CBPCs. The cost of phosphates and conversion to the correct mineral forms add to the manufacturing cost, and hence calcium phosphate cements are more expensive than conventional cements. For this reason, their use has been largely limited to dental and other biomedical applications. Calcium phosphate cements have found application as structural materials, but only when wollastonite is used as an admixture in magnesium phosphate cements. Because calcium phosphates are also bone minerals, they are indispensable in biomaterial applications and hence form a class of useful CBPCs that cannot be substituted by any other. 

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