Surface modification of titanium implants by adherent hydroxyapatite/titanium oxide composite coatings using novel in-situ synthesis

Abstract

The medical devices based on titanium and its alloys are widely used in the repair and replacement of a degraded or inhibited func-tion of locomotor system [1]. Ti and its alloys exhibit high mechanical strength, good workability, resistant to corrosion and low cost. Although, they are widely used as orthopedic and dental implants their inability to interact with living tissue will inhibit their biological fixation and osseoin-tegration [2]. Therefore, to improve the hard-tissue compatibility of Ti various sur-face treatments have been developed for the inorganic coating formation [3]. The hyd-roxyapatite (HAp, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) with superior osteogenic activity is a competitive approach to make novel coatings for titanium implants applications. HAp is a calcium phosphate very similar to the inorganic part of the human bone and hard tissues both in morphology and compo-sition. Herein, in-situ synthesis of HAp/TiO2 coating on titanium was performed via ana-phoretic deposition of HAp and simulta-neous anodization of Ti to produce highly adherent and strengthened composite coating. It can be seen that morphology of Ti substrate of anHAP/TiO2 coating is of tubular shape, and tube formation occurs mainly due to competing processes of anodization and electrophoretic deposition of HAp. anHAp/TiO2 coating does not need sintering process, and simultaneous Ti anodization and HAp deposition occur, where HAp crystals incorporate in the anodized Ti surface. From the presented results it can be concluded that novel suggested process of in situ simultaneous anHAp/TiO2 deposition with Ti surface anodization gives much better results that cathaphoretic deposition regarding adhesion.