A systematic approach was developed for the synthesis of orthophosphates in the laboratory. A set of experiments was designed to investigate the influence of initial calcium and phosphorus concentration on the precipitated phase, nucleation pH and product size distribution at 25degreesC. Another goal was to characterize the precipitated phase. The investigation was conducted in a batch reactor. The initial molar concentration of calcium chloride and hydrated sodium phosphate solutions was varied from 0.005 to 0.08-mole dm(-3) and the solution pH was kept under 7.1. Analysis by powder XRD, FTIR and elemental P/Ca revealed that the crystals precipitated were pure brushite (dicalcium phosphate dihydrate), as expected, except in one experiment in which amorphous calcium phosphate precipitated. The brushite crystals produced had plate-like morphology as investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The nucleation pH showed a decreasing trend as the concentration of the calcium and phosphorus increased in the reactor, but the volume mean diameter of the crystals and the span of the crystal size distribution did not show any sensitivity to the changes in the initial calcium and phosphorus concentration. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.