This contribution focused on the preparation of peroxide-doped calcium phosphate apatites - in view of potential uses as bioactive bioceramics with antimicrobial functions, and on their main physico-chemical characteristics. Two synthesis routes were investigated. First, the hydrolysis of beta-TCP in the presence of H2O2 was followed. However, only elevated concentrations in H2O2 in the medium or temperatures around 150 degrees C allowed us to reach the complete beta-TCP-to-apatite hydrolysis process, and the obtained samples exhibited a high crystallinity state with no non-apatitic chemical environments. The second protocol tested consisted in the direct apatite precipitation in the presence of H2O2 in the medium (at room temperature). This protocol led to single-phased nanocrystalline apatites, and our data indicate that part of the apatitic OH- ions were substituted by oxygenated species, and typically by peroxide ions (quantified). Physico-chemical modifications in the form of an improvement in crystallinity state, an increase in unit cell volume, and the presence of additional Raman bands were noticed and discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.