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The lack of bioactivity of titanium (Ti) is one of the main drawbacks for its application in biomedical implants since it can considerable reduce its osseointegration capacities. One strategy to overcome this limitation is the coating of Ti with hydroxyapatite (HA), which presents similar chemical composition than bone. Nonetheless, most of the strategies currently used generate a non-stable coating and may produce the formation of amorphous phases when high temperatures are used. Herein, we proposed to generate a Ti-HA composite coating on Ti surface to improve the stability of the bioactive coating. The coating was produced by cold gas spraying, which uses relatively low temperatures, and compared to a Ti coating. The coating was thoroughly characterized in terms of morphology, roughness, porosity and phase composition. In addition, the coating was mechanically characterized using a tensile loading machine. Finally, biological response was evaluated after seeding SaOS-2 osteoblasts and measuring cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. The novel Ti-HA coating presented high porosity and high adhesion and bond strengths. No change in HA phases was observed after coating formation. Moreover, osteoblast-like cells adhered, proliferated and differentiated on Ti-HA coated surfaces suggesting that the novel coating might be a good candidate for biomedical applications. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

International audience; This paper is an experimental research about the mechanical effects on Ti-6Al-4V surfaces treated with an ultrasonic vibration-assisted ball burnishing process. Its aim is to define the process parameters to achieve the best surface integrity on the target workpiece, as well as identifying the effects caused by the introduction of vibrations as a means of assistance. A Taguchi orthogonal array including five factors (preload, number of passes, feed velocity, strategy and original surface texture) was applied to perform the process on ball-end milled surfaces. A comprehensive analysis of the effects was performed, by considering in depth three different facets of surface integrity, namely, topology, residual stress and hardness. Hence the extensive result datasets presented in this paper, which deliver an exhaustive description of the process effects by combining a triple approach in the results analysis section. The effect of vibrations is proved positive to enhance the texture as long as the original surface is not characterized by Sq >2 μm. Furthermore, only the preload and number of passes influence the results. In terms of residual stress, all parameters are influential in the results, especially the burnishing strategy, through which a specific direction can be reinforced. Finally, the burnishing operation proves to modify the hardness of deep layers down to 0.5 mm, applying the vibration-assisted process. The main conclusion derived from these works is a technical recommendation to treat the Ti-6Al-4 V surface through the process, aiming to find a balanced comprehensive surface integrity enhancement.

Commercially pure grade 2 titanium in sheet form was processed by equal channel angular sheet extrusion (ECASE) up to two passes at room temperature. The ECASE process generated a heterogeneous state of deformation, mainly affecting the sheet metal edges´ vicinity. The deformation heterogeneity gave rise to notable microstructural changes throughout the sheet thickness with high densities of twins located around 600 μm from the sheet edges. At the same time, the middle zone was kept free of twins. The highest twin density generated with the ECASE process corresponds mostly to tension twins of type 10 1 ¯ 2 10 1 ¯ 1 oriented towards the extrusion direction. The heterogeneous structure produced a material strength increase of 200 MPa, maintaining a uniform deformation zone of 10%. The good strength-ductility combination was related to a heterogeneous distribution of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) between the hardest and softest areas. The edge areas presented greater GNDs of type ⟨a⟩ on the twins' exterior than in their interior while in the middle zone, the highest GND densities grouped around triple points and grain boundaries. It was found that the grains with the most significant capacity to nucleate twins and store GNDs were those with the c-axis of the crystals parallel to the normal direction (ND). According to the Hall-Petch relationship, the strength improvement of the heterogeneous material comes from the grain size reduction mainly due to twins induced by deformation around the edge areas.

One of the major problems faced by metallic implants is the high probability of bacterial infections, with significant consequences for the patient. In this work, a thermochemical treatment is proposed to obtain silver-doped calcium titanate coatings on the Ti surface to improve the bioactivity of porous 3D-printed Ti structures and simultaneously provide them with antibacterial properties. A complete characterization of the new coating, the study of the ion release and the analysis of its cytotoxicity were carried out together with evaluation of the natural apatite forming in simulated body fluid (SBF). Moreover, the antibacterial properties of the coatings were assessed against Pseudomona aeruginosa and Escherichia coli as gram-negative and Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis as gram-positive bacterial strains. Ag ions were integrated into the Ca titanate layer and Ag nanoparticles were formed within the entire 3D Ti surface. Ca and Ag ions were released from both porous and solid samples into the Hanks' solution for 48 h. The treated surfaces showed no cytotoxicity and an apatite layer precipitated on the entire porous surface when the samples were immersed in SBF. The release of Ag from the surface had a strong antibacterial effect and prevented bacterial adhesion and proliferation on the surface. Moreover, the nanostructured topography of the coating resulted also in a reduction of bacterial adhesion and proliferation, even in absence of Ag. In conclusion, the cost-effective approach here reported provided protection against the most predominant bacterial colonizers to the Ti porous implants, while maintaining their bioactivity.

Atmospheric plasma spraying is used here to obtain titanium sub-oxide coatings on the following electrode substrates: a 316 stainless steel sheet, an aluminium alloy 2024 sheet, a carbon–polymer composite and nickel foam. It is necessary to increase the roughness of the substrate to aid the adhesion of the coating to the smooth electrodes; this is especially critical for the fragile carbon–polymer composite. High-energy conditions increase the strain caused by the mismatch between coefficients of thermal expansion when coating the thin steel and aluminium sheets, and degraded the carbon–polymer composite and nickel foam. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the spraying parameters to lower-energy conditions in order to achieve well-bonded and homogeneous coatings on all four substrates and avoid the presence of cracks in their cross-section area. The suitability of the coated materials as battery electrodes was studied.

Bacterial infection represents a major cause of implant failure in dentistry. A common approach to overcoming this issue and treating pen-implant infection consists in the use of antibiotics. However, the rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria poses serious concerns to this strategy. A promising alternative is the use of antimicrobial peptides due to their broad-spectrum activity against bacteria and reduced bacterial resistance responses. The aim of the present study was to determine the in vitro antibacterial activity of the human lactoferrin-derived peptide hLf1-11 anchored to titanium surfaces. To this end, titanium samples were functionalized with the hLf1-11 peptide either by silanization methods or physical adsorption. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses confirmed the successful covalent attachment of the hLf1-11 peptide onto titanium surfaces. Lactate dehydrogenase assay determined that hLf1-11 peptide did not affect fibroblast viability. An outstanding reduction in the adhesion and early stages of biofilm formation of Streptococcus sanguinis and Lactobacillus salivarius was observed on the biofunctionalized surfaces compared to control non-treated samples. Furthermore, samples coated with the hLf1-11 peptide inhibited the early stages of bacterial growth. Thus, this strategy holds great potential to develop antimicrobial biomaterials for dental applications. (C) 2014 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

It is known that surface roughness and chemical composition of the titanium surface influence the osseointegration of titanium implants. Most commercial dental implants offer a shot-blasted rough surface. It is also known that apatite layers coating the surface of titanium implants improve bone response, but the adhesion of the layer to the substrate poses some problems. In this study the roughness and adhesion strength to a titanium dental implant surface of an apatite layer deposited via wet chemistry after a thermochemical treatment were compared with those of plasma-sprayed apatite layers and machined titanium surfaces. Different surface conditions have been studied: (a) as-received machined dental implant surface; (b) grit-blasted titanium surface; (c) grit-blasted and thermochemicallytreated titanium surface; (d) titanium surfaces coated with plasma-sprayed apatite. The morphology and roughness of the samples were measured and compared. The adhesion of the apatite layers to the titanium was compared by means of a scratch test. Measured roughness showed that the deposition of an apatite layer did not affect roughness but plasmasprayed apatite produced a decrease on roughness values when compared to control samples. Both roughness and adhesion strength of the deposited apatite layer to the titanium substrate were higher than those of the plasma-sprayed apatite.