Microwave heating has many advantages such as rapidness, short reaction time, high efficiency and energy saving. The microwave-assisted syntheses usually exhibit order-of-magnitude enhancements in chemical reaction rate as compared to the conventional syntheses. As a result, the microwave heating as a novel heat source allows the rapid production of inorganic nanostructured materials in liquid phase, thus advancing rapidly toward its practical applications. On the other hand, the rich varieties of liquid solvents and their smart combinations will provide a great freedom for the rapid preparation of various calcium phosphate nanostructured materials, and more importantly for the control over the chemical composition, structure, size, morphology, and self-assembly. In recent years, to investigate new strategies for the preparation, control over structure/size/morphology, properties and applications of calcium phosphate nanostructured materials have become a hot topic in the biomedical research field. Up to now, various calcium phosphate nanostructured materials have been prepared by the microwave-assisted method in liquid phase, including nanoparticles, one-, two- and three-dimensional nanostructures. In addition, calcium phosphate nanostructured materials can be further functionalized through doping or adding different functional components by the microwave-assisted method. The as-prepared calcium phosphate based nanostructured materials are promising for applications in various fields, including drug delivery, protein adsorption, metal ion adsorption, bioimaging, and so on. This review discusses the advantages of microwave-assisted synthesis of nanostructured materials, and reviews the recent progress of microwave-assisted preparation of calcium phosphate nanostructured materials in liquid phase.In addition, some future research trends and directions of microwave-assisted synthesis of calcium phosphate nanostructured materials are proposed.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Advantages of microwave-assisted preparation of nanostructured materials
3 Microwave-assisted preparation of calcium phosphate nanostructured materials using inorganic phosphate as phosphorus source in liquid phase
3.1 Structural control over calcium phosphate
3.2 Preparation of calcium phosphate nanostructured materials using the ultrasound-microwave combined method
4 Microwave-assisted preparation of calcium phosphate nanostructured materials using organic biomolecules as phosphorus source
5 Microwave-assisted preparation of multifunctional calcium phosphate nanostructured materials in liquid phase
5.1 Doped/composite calcium phosphate nanostructured materials
5.2 Multifunctional calcium phosphate nanostructured drug carriers
6 Conclusion