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Economic viability and eco-friendliness are important characteristics that make implants available to the population in a sustainable way. In this work, we evaluate the performance of a low-cost, widely available, and eco-friendly material (talc from soapstone) relative to reduced graphene oxide as reinforcement to brittle hydroxyapatite coatings. We employ a low-cost and straightforward technique, electrodeposition, to deposit the composite coatings on the titanium substrate. Corrosion, wear, and biocompatibility tests indicate that the reduced graphene oxide can be effectively replaced by talc without reducing the mechanical, anticorrosion, and biocompatible composite coatings properties. Our results indicate that talc from soapstone is a promising material for biomedical applications.

Mechanical resistant bioactive materials are of high interest for biomedical applications. In this work, we address the improvement in mechanical properties of HA coatings by the addition of a cheap and widely available secondary phase material, the talc from soapstone. The composites hydroxyapatite/talc (HA/talc) were successfully obtained by pulsed electrodeposition and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, corrosion and wear resistance and biocompatibility tests. We found that the addition of talc greatly improves the mechanical properties of coatings (i. e., wear track and friction coefficient in wear tests were significantly diminished) without diminishing corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. Alamar Blue® tests, alkaline phosphatase activity, and collagen production indicate that the biocomposites are biocompatible and talc itself induce bone maturation.